A program of outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy for serious pediatric bacterial infections.

A program set up in the Soroka University Medical Center, Beer Sheva, Israel, offers outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT) for children with serious bacterial infections. The following criteria must be met before a child is placed in this program: OPAT must be a suitable form of treatment for the infection, an appropriate drug must be available, the parents must be cooperative and well-informed, and 24-hour-a-day telephone communication and transportation between the home and hospital must be available. With use of ceftriaxone administered im, the OPAT program has shown positive results: a cure rate of 98.5% and an estimated savings of 1,334 hospital days for 140 patients over a 17-month period.