Outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy. Management of serious infections. Part II: Amenable infections and models for delivery. Pneumonia and chronic lung disease.

The need for medical support is the determining factor when selecting patients with acute pneumonia for outpatient therapy. Patients are often too old or too sick for early discharge, but a large subgroup can continue parenteral therapy as outpatients. Other pneumonia patients, as well as patients with infectious flares of chronic lung disease, can be treated with outpatient therapy alone.