scholarly journals Development of an Algorithm for Surveillance of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia With Electronic Data and Comparison of Algorithm Results With Clinician Diagnoses

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Klompas ◽  
Ken Kleinman ◽  
Richard Platt

Objective.Surveillance for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) using standard Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) criteria is labor intensive and involves many subjective assessments. We sought to improve the efficiency and objectivity of VAP surveillance by adapting the CDC criteria to make them amenable to evaluation with electronic data.Design.Prospective comparison of the accuracy of VAP surveillance by use of an algorithm with responses to prospective queries made to intensive care physicians. CDC criteria for VAP were used as a reference standard to evaluate the algorithm and clinicians' reports.Setting.Three surgical intensive care units and 2 medical intensive care units at an academic hospital.Methods.A total of 459 consecutive patients who received mechanical ventilation for a total of 2,540 days underwent surveillance by both methods during consecutive 3-month periods. Electronic surveillance criteria were chosen to mirror the CDC definition. Quantitative thresholds were substituted for qualitative criteria. Purely subjective criteria were eliminated. Increases in ventilator-control settings were taken to indicate worsening oxygenation. Semiquantitative Gram stain of pulmonary secretion samples was used to assess whether there was sputum purulence.Results.The algorithm applied to electronic data detected 20 patients with possible VAP. All cases of VAP were confirmed in accordance with standard CDC criteria (100% positive predictive value). Prospective survey of clinicians detected 33 patients with possible VAP. Seventeen of the 33 possible cases were confirmed (52% positive predictive value). Overall, 21 cases of confirmed VAP were identified by either method. The algorithm identified 20 (95%) of 21 known cases, whereas the survey of clinicians identified 17 (81%) of 21 cases.Conclusions.Surveillance for VAP using electronic data is feasible and has high positive predictive value for cases that meet CDC criteria. Further validation of this method is warranted.

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn L. Cason ◽  
Tracy Tyner ◽  
Sue Saunders ◽  
Lisa Broome

• Background Ventilator-associated pneumonia accounts for 47% of infections in patients in intensive care units. Adherence to the best nursing practices recommended in the 2003 guidelines for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should reduce the risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia. • Objective To evaluate the extent to which nurses working in intensive care units implement best practices when managing adult patients receiving mechanical ventilation. • Methods Nurses attending education seminars in the United States completed a 29-item questionnaire about the type and frequency of care provided. • Results Twelve hundred nurses completed the questionnaire. Most (82%) reported compliance with hand-washing guidelines, 75% reported wearing gloves, half reported elevating the head of the bed, a third reported performing subglottic suctioning, and half reported having an oral care protocol in their hospital. Nurses in hospitals with an oral care protocol reported better compliance with hand washing and maintaining head-of-bed elevation, were more likely to regularly provide oral care, and were more familiar with rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia and the organisms involved than were nurses working in hospitals without such protocols. • Conclusions The guidelines for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are not consistently or uniformly implemented. Practices of nurses employed in hospitals with oral care protocols are more often congruent with the guidelines than are practices of nurses employed in hospitals without such protocols. Significant reductions in rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia may be achieved by broader implementation of oral care protocols.


Shock ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ole Goertz ◽  
Eike-Marie Wolff ◽  
Axel Nierhaus ◽  
Amir F. Gharagozlou ◽  
Tobias Hirsch ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 141 (12) ◽  
pp. 2483-2491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. MEHTA ◽  
N. JAGGI ◽  
V. D. ROSENTHAL ◽  
C. RODRIGUES ◽  
S. K. TODI ◽  
...  

SUMMARYWe report on the effect of the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium's (INICC) multidimensional approach for the reduction of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in adult patients hospitalized in 21 intensive-care units (ICUs), from 14 hospitals in 10 Indian cities. A quasi-experimental study was conducted, which was divided into baseline and intervention periods. During baseline, prospective surveillance of VAP was performed applying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Healthcare Safety Network definitions and INICC methods. During intervention, our approach in each ICU included a bundle of interventions, education, outcome and process surveillance, and feedback of VAP rates and performance. Crude stratified rates were calculated, and by using random-effects Poisson regression to allow for clustering by ICU, the incidence rate ratio for each time period compared with the 3-month baseline was determined. The VAP rate was 17·43/1000 mechanical ventilator days during baseline, and 10·81 for intervention, showing a 38% VAP rate reduction (relative risk 0·62, 95% confidence interval 0·5–0·78, P = 0·0001).


2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronique Nussenblatt ◽  
Edina Avdic ◽  
Sean Berenholtz ◽  
Elizabeth Daugherty ◽  
Eric Hadhazy ◽  
...  

Objective.Diagnosing ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is difficult, and misdiagnosis can lead to unnecessary and prolonged antibiotic treatment. We sought to quantify and characterize unjustified antimicrobial use for VAP and identify risk factors for continuation of antibiotics in patients without VAP after 3 days.Methods.Patients suspected of having VAP were identified in 6 adult intensive care units (ICUs) over 1 year. A multidisciplinary adjudication committee determined whether the ICU team's VAP diagnosis and therapy were justified, using clinical, microbiologic, and radiographic data at diagnosis and on day 3. Outcomes included the proportion of VAP events misdiagnosed as and treated for VAP on days 1 and 3 and risk factors for the continuation of antibiotics in patients without VAP after day 3.Results.Two hundred thirty-one events were identified as possible VAP by the ICUs. On day 1, 135 (58.4%) of them were determined to not have VAP by the committee. Antibiotics were continued for 120 (76%) of 158 events without VAP on day 3. After adjusting for acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II score and requiring vasopressors on day 1, sputum culture collection on day 3 was significantly associated with antibiotic continuation in patients without VAP. Patients without VAP or other infection received 1,183 excess days of antibiotics during the study.Conclusions.Overdiagnosis and treatment of VAP was common in this study and led to 1,183 excess days of antibiotics in patients with no indication for antibiotics. Clinical differences between non-VAP patients who had antibiotics continued or discontinued were minimal, suggesting that clinician preferences and behaviors contribute to unnecessary prescribing.


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