Ventilator-associated pneumonia
Innovations
As part of a hospital collaborative, intensive care units implemented a multifaceted safety program that reduced infections and hospital days, saved lives, and lowered health care costs.
Intensivists guide care around the clock in two medical–surgical intensive care units, leading to lower length of stay and the near elimination of ventilator-associated pneumonia, hospital-acquired pressure ulcers, and central line infections.
New health system–wide infrastructure facilitates better adherence to recommended practices, lower mortality, and the virtual elimination of code blues.
Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital and Nursing Facility modified and expanded an existing set of known-to-be-effective inpatient interventions for use in the long-term acute care setting, leading to a 58 percent reduction in ventilator-associated pneumonia.
Children's Healthcare of Atlanta developed and implemented a program to reduce the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia in three intensive care units, including two pediatric intensive care units and one cardiac intensive care unit. The program adapts a bundle of evidence-based interventions commonly used to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia in adults to the pediatric population.
The implementation of daily multidisciplinary patient rounds and a bundle of best practice guidelines reduced the use of ventilators for patients in the intensive care unit.
The combination of multidisciplinary, physician-led rounds and a set of evidence-based best practices (known as “bundles”) decreased nosocomial infection rates and costs in the intensive care unit.
Sentara Healthcare launched a program designed to create a strong culture of safety. The initiative includes an assessment of the existing safety culture, establishment of goals related to improved safety, the development of specific strategies to identify and correct safety problems, and the use of ongoing processes and systems to monitor progress and encourage continued improvement.
Intensive care unit clinicians developed a standardized communication process based on a daily goals form that prompts clinicians to evaluate and document the patient's current status, design a care plan, and outline daily tasks, thereby increasing clinician understanding of daily care goals.
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