Development and implementation of a pharmacist-managed outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy program.

Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT) Practices at a Veterans Affairs Hospital: Potential for Pharmacist Impact

Antimicrobial stewardship: optimizing antibiotic use in an era of increasing resistance and rising costs.

Program Description With antimicrobial resistance on the rise and very few new pharmaceutical agents in development, a well-managed antimicrobial stewardship program in the hospital becomes the first-line defense against the emergence of resistance and provides not only a cost-containment measure but also ensures the continued efficacy of available antimicrobials. A successful stewardship progr...

Antibiotic management and early discharge from hospital: an economic analysis.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate potential costs and savings from implementing an evaluation tool that uses bedside review of antibiotic use and infection management to assess whether patients with infections in acute medical and surgical wards could have their antibiotic regimen changed and be safely managed out of hospital. METHODS The tool was implemented in 30 acute wards in five UK hospital trusts...

Monitoring of Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy and Implementation of Clinical Pharmacy Services at a Community Hospital Infusion Unit.

BACKGROUND In 2004, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) published monitoring guidelines for outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT), but no assessment of their utilization has been reported. We evaluated adherence to these recommendations by physicians at infusion centers and then piloted a program of supervision of monitoring by pharmacists. METHODS Phase I: We perfo...

Managing an outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy team: challenges and solutions

Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) programs should strive to deliver safe, cost effective, and high quality care. One of the keys to developing and sustaining a high quality OPAT program is to understand the common challenges or barriers to OPAT delivery. We review the most common challenges to starting and managing an OPAT program and give practical advice on addressing these i...