The National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) yesterday announced an expansion of the treatment duration for the Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT) program to seven days from five days, effective immediately, allowing people to reduce the frequency of hospital visits.
The decision was made on March 26 at a meeting of the NHI’s Joint Committee for the Fee Schedule of Medical Services, along with a decision to add an “early discharge model” to the Acute Care at Home pilot program, which is scheduled to be implemented in the first half of this year, the agency said.
NHIA Director-General Chen Liang-yu (陳亮妤) said that the OPAT program, which was launched last year, integrates inpatient, emergency and outpatient antibiotic treatment resources to reduce unnecessary hospitalizations, enhancing hospital bed utilization efficiency.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
According to NHIA data, the OPAT program provides an option for some patients who need prolonged courses of intravenous antibiotics to treat infections, allowing them to receive intravenous antibiotics regularly at outpatient clinics instead of being hospitalized.
The enrollment criteria for the OPAT program include people in a stable condition — without the risk of significant complications — who do not require hospitalization, and who have one of the following indications: pneumonia, urinary tract infection, soft tissue infection, osteomyelitis, spinal infection, septic arthritis, endocarditis, postoperative infection or medical device-related infections.
NHIA Medical Affairs Division official Lin You-chun (林右鈞) said that considering outpatient doctors typically assess patients on a weekly basis, and to reduce the need for patients to make frequent hospital visits as well as the administrative burden of re-initiating the program, the decision was made to extend the treatment duration to seven days for each course.
Chuang Yu-chung (莊祐中), director of the OPAT Center at National Taiwan University Hospital, said that delays in treatment would be mitigated.
With the extension to seven days, people can visit the same doctor’s outpatient clinic at the same time on Monday the following week, Chuang said.
Meanwhile, Lin said that an “early discharge model” added to the Acute Care at Home program is suitable for people who have undergone acute care in a hospital and only require daily antibiotic injections.
After a doctor evaluates a patient’s condition and says they are stable, they can return home or to a care facility to continue treatment, while a home medical care team conducts daily visits, he said.
The NHIA plans to allocate about 59 million NHI points (one point usually equals about NT$1) for the new “early discharge model,” which is expected to benefit about 1,200 people, Lin added.
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