Determining the risk of Sepsis using nurse-compounded elastomeric pumps for continuous infusion in outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy

Limited availability of compounded antibiotics used for continuous infusion outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT) can delay or interrupt an OPAT course. To solve this problem, OPAT nurses at a hospital in Australia have been compounding elastomeric pumps for immediate use. The incidence of sepsis in 5014 patients before and after the introduction of nurse compounding was compared. There were no cases of laboratory-confirmed bloodstream infection among the nurse-compounded group compared with 2 cases (0.045/1000 catheter days) among the control group without nurse compounding (P =.16). No compounding medication errors occurred in more than 180 patient years of follow-up among the nurse compounding group. Nurse compounding can be a safe and convenient alternative when immediate access to preloaded elastomeric pumps is required.