PRACTICE GUIDELINES FOR COMMUNITY-BASED PARENTERAL ANTIINFECTIVE THERAPY

This is the fourth in a series of practice guidelines commissioned by the Infectious Diseases Society of America through its Practice Guidel ines Committee, The purpose of this guideline is to provide assistance to clinicians when making decisions on when and how to best administe r parenteral antimicrobial therapy, The targeted providers are interni sts, pediatricians, family practitioners, and other providers of outpa tient antiinfective therapy, Criteria for selecting the appropriate pa tients and settings to deliver therapy in the community are described, Panel members represented experts in adult and pediatric infectious d iseases, The guidelines are evidence-based, A standard ranking system is used for the strength of the recommendations and the quality of the evidence cited in the literature reviewed, The document has been subj ected to external review by peer reviewers as well as by the Practice Guidelines Committee and was approved by the IDSA Council, An executiv e summary and tables highlight the major recommendations. The guidelin e will be listed on the IDSA home page at http://www.idsociety.org.