INTRODUCTION Ensuring value for money spent on drug therapyis one of the most challenging aspects of health care management. In Canada, pharmaceuticals continue to be the single fastest-increasing health care expenditure, representing 17.5% of the total in 2005, up from just 9.5% in 1985. Moreover, total spending on drugs (both prescription and over-the-counter) in Canada [...]
Guidelines often recommend that when outpatient therapy is prescribed, a physician with OPAT experience, such as an infectious disease specialist, should be involved. In this study, the infectious disease service was involved in the care of 61% of the patients, including all patients with endocarditis and two-thirds of those with osteomyelitis. Neither the report from [...]
The objective of this study was to review current practices related to OPAT for adult patients treated at The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. This review allowed description of the patients who received OPAT, the extent of involvement of infectious disease specialists in the care of these patients, the most common [...]
Antimicrobial Regimen Most of the patients in this study (54 or 82%) were treated with a single antimicrobial agent (Table 2). Cefazolin was the most frequently prescribed agent, and in 22 of the 31 courses of therapy with this drug, it was used to treat cellulitis. A combination of 2 parenteral antimicrobial agents was used [...]
A total of 236 adult patients were identified by CCAC as having been treated at The Ottawa Hospital or the University of Ottawa Heart Institute with a prescription for IV antimicrobial therapy between November 1, 2003, and October 31, 2004. Consent was obtained from the 75 patients in the selected convenience sample, and their charts [...]
The study protocol was approved by the Research and Ethics Boards of The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. Patients who were treated at either of these institutions between November 1, 2003, and October 31, 2004, and who received OPAT were identified for this review by the Community Care Access Centre (CCAC), [...]
INTRODUCTION Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) was first introduced in 1974, and its use has been increasing steadily, particularly in the past 20 years. The development of new antibiotics that can be administered daily, improvements in vascular access and drug administration devices, and the emphasis on cost containment have played important roles in the evolution [...]
