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Antibiotic therapy model creates new programs

for patients to administer care at home

arkland’s Outpatient
Antibiotic Therapy
(OPAT) program is
proving that healthcare
can be delivered in a way that
improves the health of the
population while decreasing
costs. Since 2009, the program
has trained patients to safely
administer their own IV
antibiotics at home, in an
effort to reduce hospital stays
and improve their experience.

Before the OPAT program, a
patient spent at least 42 days
in Parkland hospital to treat
an infection that required IV
antibiotic therapy. The
assumption was that patients
requiring IV therapy could
not manage their own care.
With the OPAT program,
patients who have responded
well to their antibiotic therapy
in the hospital have been
A PATIENT LEARNS how to self-administer his
trained by their care team IV antibiotics to continue his recovery at home.
to administer their own
treatment at home and are infusions they need at home,
discharged within one week.
giving the patient the dignity
“We proved that the idea that of spending their final days in
all innovation has to be tech the comfort of their home.
heavy is just not true. OPAT
PERITONEAL DIALYSIS
is all about self-sufficiency, Uninsured patients on urgent
self-advocacy and investing in or unscheduled dialysis
the human potential of our programs, on average, have
patients,” explained Kavita a nine times higher likelihood
Bhavan, MD, medical director of dying within one year when
of the Infectious Diseases compared to an insured
OPAT Clinic at Parkland and patient. A new program will
assistant professor of internal allow the patients to manage
medicine at The University
Last year 1,220 research their care at home by providing
of Texas Southwestern studies were active at Parkland, them with a dialysis catheter.
Medical Center. an increase of 10% over the
previous year. “In healthcare, we rarely see
In its first four years, OPAT consumer research about what
patients had a 47% lower patients want,” said Dr.
30-day readmission rate than Bhavan. “When OPAT patients
insured patients who had the The OPAT program is being END-STAGE HEART FAILURE were asked why they think they
help of an at-home nurse. This used as a model to create On average, end-stage heart had better outcomes than
also opened 28,000 additional new programs for patients failure patients stay 66 days in patients with home health
hospital bed days while to manage their care in the Parkland hospital until the end nurses, they said ‘because it’s
avoiding $40 million in costs. comfort of their homes. Two of life. Using the OPAT model, my body’. There’s something
new programs include: the patient’s family is taught really profound about that.”
how to administer the

Physicians create innovative care solutions

A $1 MILLION GIFT from the Hirsch Family Foundation will create the infrastructure to support the work of physicians who are leading efforts at Parkland
to find new, innovative ways to deliver care. The physicians also evaluate existing models of care and introduce new ways to improve efficiency.

Their work stands apart from other recognized innovation programs because of Parkland’s highly diverse patient base. And because the program is led by
front-line providers, they are able to champion initiatives for improved patient care among their peers. Recommended changes to care from peers, rather
than administration, have been found to be more readily accepted and adopted.