The difference is the kind of port that they put in you to do it with. I had mine done in hospital the one and only time I had to have it. The port was a temporary line that would not be safe from a germ perspective out in the community (not saying the hospital is any kind of germ free area.... just that it isn't safe to have that kind of line in your neck when wandering around town.). If I were to have it regularly, they'd put in a more permanent port / pik line and do on an out-patient basis through that line.