Infectious Diseases Physicians Present a Poster on COpAT During IDWeek 2022 in Washington, DC
IDWeek - October 19-23, 2022
Complex Outpatient Oral Antimicrobial Therapy (COpAT) was adopted by the Section of Infectious Diseases (ID) in the WVU Department of Medicine due to supportive literature and COVID-19, when there was a need to shorten hospital length of stay to open bed capacity while retaining satisfactory clinical outcomes. COpAT is defined as using oral (PO) antimicrobials with adequate bioavailability and infection site penetration in place of intravenous (IV) antimicrobials. Our COpAT program developed into an interdisciplinary team of ID physicians and pharmacists with purposes of preventing hospital admission, avoiding vascular access, facilitating hospital discharge, and optimizing patient care. Various serious infections are targeted including endocarditis and bone and joint infections. In the inpatient or outpatient setting, patients are evaluated for earlier transition to PO antimicrobials after 2-3 weeks of IV antimicrobials. COpAT patients participate in laboratory monitoring, telephone check-ins with an ID pharmacist, and follow-up in ID Clinic with an ID physician. Success of our COpAT program including evaluation of our first 100 COpAT patients was recently presented at IDWeek 2022. Approximately 225 patients have now completed our COpAT program with good outcomes, and more patients are actively being followed. Our goal is to extend COpAT across WVU Medicine while systematically collecting additional data and eventually collaborate with other institutions.
“Very grateful to our institution for spurring innovation in a time of need and to the WVU Department of Medicine for supporting the development of our COpAT program. Deeply appreciative of the dedicated effort put forth by all members of our COpAT team. Look forward to continuing to expand our COpAT program together!” said Dr. Joy Juskowich.
Learn more about our infectious diseases team: https://medicine.hsc.wvu.edu/medicine/divisions-of-medicine/infectious-diseases/mission-and-goals/
For more information on the Department of Medicine, please visit our site: https://medicine.hsc.wvu.edu/medicine/