OHPAT service continues to help patients

Patients needing intravenous antibiotics are being treated out of hospital due to a specialist microbiology service that provides long term antibiotic care and infection management at home. This service has been available for the last decade, assisting their recovery and freeing up hospital beds at Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The Outpatient and Home Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy (OHPAT) service, available at the Trust since 2001, allows patients to be treated with intravenous drugs they need in their own homes. The specialist service is becoming increasingly commonplace for healthcare providers, enabling those patients who would previously have remained in hospital for intravenous treatment to be managed as outpatients or in their own homes.

Adult patients that require long term antibiotic IV management and who are well enough to leave hospital are eligible to access the service, which sees intravenous antibiotics being administered at home with the support of the community high tech team and district nurses. Patients are closely monitored and have regular appointments with the OHPAT service, based at Wexham Park Hospital.

Lucy Everett, lead nurse at the Trust, says: “This is a fantastic patient-focused service which provides seamless care for patients who require the delivery and administration of intravenous antibiotics but don’t necessarily require hospital admission. Patients don’t want to spend any longer than they have to in hospital so this innovative, efficient service can help to reduce the length of stay or even eliminate the need for admission altogether”.

The alternative to inpatient care offers patients greater involvement in how their care is delivered and gives them a choice on where it takes place, giving them more freedom to continue with their daily lives. By staying at home, the risk of acquiring a hospital-associated infection is also reduced.

Staff also benefit from the service because it frees up their time to manage acute admissions and allows for inpatient resources to be freed up and allocated to those patients who need a higher level of care.

The OHPAT team is made up of consultants, two specialist nurses, a pharmacist and support from medical and nursing teams. Typically, conditions that can be treated using the service are bone and joint infections, complex tissue infection and liver abscesses.

“Our dedicated team takes the time to educate patients on the process and service so that they feel comfortable and in control of what will happen when they get home. As well as weekly hospital appointments, each patient is visited at home daily by a district nurse to make sure they are happy and well whilst on their treatment”, adds Lucy.

"Before OHPAT, patients with these infections would have had to stay in hospital for the duration of their treatment. Our service gives patients much more autonomy, which aids recovery, because they are in their own, familiar surroundings."

Sheila Davies, an outpatient at Wexham Park, has been using the OHPAT service since July this year, after acquiring an infection following breaking her shoulder: “After my surgery, unfortunately I picked up an infection which meant I had to start a course of antibiotics. Without the OHPAT service, I would have had to stay in hospital for at least six weeks while I was treated. I was told about OHPAT and decided that rather than sitting in hospital, I would be much happier to be at home. Once I was discharged, a district nurse came to see me each day to administer the antibiotics through a special line. After the first few days, I realised that I could probably do it myself, so with the guidance of the nurses, I did!

“I can’t praise the OHPAT team at Wexham Park Hospital enough. They gave me excellent treatment and I had so much faith in them that even though I was nervous to start with, they took the time to make me feel comfortable so that I could do things on my own”.