Emphasizing the O in OPAT: A Pathway for Clinic-Initiated Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (CI-OPAT) at an Academic Center

Molly McDonough; Michael Yarrington; Jason Funaro; Jenny Shroba; Kristen Dicks

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofag105

Emphasizing the O in OPAT: A Pathway for Clinic-Initiated Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (CI-OPAT) at an Academic Center

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2026 Mar 3;13(3):ofag105. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofag105. eCollection 2026 Mar.

Authors

Molly McDonough¹, Michael Yarrington^{1

2}, Jason Funaro³, Jenny Shroba³, Kristen Dicks¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
² Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Duke Center for Antimicrobial Stewardship and Infection Prevention, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
³ Department of Pharmacy, Duke University Hospital, Durham, North Carolina, USA.

Abstract

Our infectious diseases (ID) clinic began a clinic-initiated outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (CI-OPAT) program to avoid unnecessary emergency department visits or inpatient admissions. In this single-center retrospective case series, we describe the treatment of 59 outpatients with CI-OPAT with low rates of complications. These findings suggest that CI-OPAT programs can be safe and effective.

Keywords: OPAT; clinic-initiated OPAT; outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy.