An outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT) map to identify risks associated with an OPAT service

Administering parenteral antibiotics outside the confines of a ward setting is becoming an attractive way of treating infections in the UK. However, as well as having many advantages, an outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT) service potentially introduces new risks to staff and patients involved. In the United States, healthcare organizations are now prospectively analysing processes to try and prevent errors occurring using the Healthcare Failure Mode Effect Analysis (HFMEA) tool. The objectives of this study were to map out and agree the OPAT process and sub-processes and to identify potential OPAT system failures using steps 1-3 of the HFMEA tool, so that the resulting OPAT map can be used to design an OPAT service where risk is minimized.