HOSPITAL-ACQUIRED PNEUMONIA PREVENTION: Intervention, Evaluation & Research

Over the past decade, hospital-based quality improvement initiatives have been focused primarily on the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), resulting in significant decreases in reported cases of VAP. With the reduction in VAP, Non-ventilator HAP (NV-HAP) now has a larger overall impact on patient morbidity, mortality, and cost of care than VAP. In a point-prevalence study conducted for CDC in 2014, HAP (NV-HAP 62% of total HAP) was tied with surgical site infections as the leading cause of hospital-acquired infections (HAI). More recent CDC (2018) point prevalence data have now identified HAP as the #1 HAI, with NV-HAP representing more than 60% of the cases. 

Our efforts are focused on the implementation of evidence-based oral care as NV-HAP prevention for all patients, along with the development of new products specifically designed to help address this very important patient safety issue.