Key takeaways:

Within 30 days of a bacterial pneumonia diagnosis, 69.2% of patients with a penicillin allergy label and 56.2% of those without a label were hospitalized.
40.1% of patients with a label and 35.3% of those without a label were diagnosed with acute respiratory failure within 30 days of their bacterial pneumonia diagnosis.
Rates of mortality within 30 days of a bacterial pneumonia diagnosis included 6.2% of those with a penicillin allergy label and 5.7% of those without a label.

Patients with penicillin allergy labels experienced worse outcomes with bacterial pneumonia than patients who did not have these labels, according to a study published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.

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