The Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT) Experience in a Referral Hospital in South Carolina

Several studies have established outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT) as an alternative to prolonged inpatient stays to reduce healthcare expenditure, decrease hospital admission times, and increase patient satisfaction. However, studies have also shown significant adverse events occurring while receiving treatment outpatient. We collected retrospective data through electronic medical record review on all patients discharged on IV antibiotics whose OPAT was managed by the infectious disease specialists at Greenville Health System between 1/1/17 and 6/30/17. There were a total of 336 individual patients discharged on OPAT during the 6 month period. Bacteremia (25.4%), osteomyelitis (14.9%), and diabetic foot infections (12.8%) were the most common indications for OPAT with methicillin-sensitive staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) being the most common organism targeted (22.5%). 11% of patients had a medication change during their treatment course. The most common reasons were nausea/malaise (26%) and acute kidney injury (26%). Our hospital re-admission rate was 8.7%. Statistical analysis of the data indicated that home infusion was significantly more likely to result in re-admission compared to the infusion center (p=0.02). Also receiving antibiotics for osteomyelitis was more likely to result in re-admission compared to other diagnoses (p=0.048). Our data indicates that self-administration of antibiotics at home results in higher re-admission rates compared to administration at infusion centers. Factors that may contribute to this difference such as compliance, co-morbidities, or frequency of nurse assessments warrant further exploration to optimize the safety of OPAT, especially in rural South Carolina.