Patients who need antibiotic treatment delivered intravenously in the weeks or months after being discharged from the hospital are typically allowed to go home with a medication pump and an open IV tube — and for the first time some U.S. hospitals are allowing drug users to do the same, according to an NPR report.
Patients leaving the hospital who need more medication via the IV are given a peripherally inserted or percutaneous indwelling central catheter, or a PICC line, which looks like a flexible IV tube. Patients can use the pump and IV tube to give themselves medication at home.
However, those who have a history of addiction were not allowed to use this option, as caregivers were afraid they might use the open IV line to inject drugs.
But now a few U.S. hospitals, including Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital, are changing that protocol. Those with addiction issues also tend to be particularly susceptible to infection, requiring antibiotics delivered through an IV, NPR reports.
Brigham and Women's only allows patients with addiction issues to take the option if they fulfil all three of the following requirements:
• They have to be taking an addiction treatment medication or be willing to start one.
• They have to attend a weekly check-in.
• They have stable housing and are living with someone.
Brigham and Women's began offering the option to complete IV treatment at home to current and former drug users in 2018, and so far, 40 people have taken advantage of the program.
Of the 40 people in Brigham and Women's program, 21 were drug users. They completed the program without any complications, and although three relapsed, none of them used the PICC line to take drugs.
"I think we've shown, through this pilot, that it is safe and feasible for certain patients," Christin Price, MD, director of the Brigham and Women's Bridge Clinic in Boston where the program was implemented, told NPR.
Brigham and Women's physicians plan to publish results of the pilot program in a medical journal, NPR reports.