Use of Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy in a Health Maintenance Organization

Outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy in a health maintenance organization (HMO), as carried out at the Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been effective for ambulatory patients (who received their injections at one of the HMO facilities) and for nonambulatory patients (who were visited in their homes by members of the HMO's home health care team). Over a 17-month period, implementation of these procedures resulted in savings of as much as 73% per day over the costs for similar treatment of similar infections in hospitalized patients. The savings derived from treating nonambulatory patients were slightly less than those from treating ambulatory patients because of the costs for home health care personnel.