Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that increased rates of VAP in the author?s hospital, which were above the national average, triggered the experimentation of new techniques to reduce the incidence of VAP. The author describes the experimental method, with pre and post tests using four randomly selected groups: Group 1 was treated with a new oral care procedure, including an oral rinse with chlorhexidine; Group 2 was treated by being placed into a semi-recumbent position, which reduces gastroesophageal reflux and subsequent aspiration; Group 3 was treated with a combination of both treatments; and Group 4, the control, was treated by the current method. The paper relates that the best results were obtained for Group 3, where both variables were tested simultaneously and which yielded considerably lower rates than each of the measures when tested individually, resulting in a new treatment program that has proven to be successful. Chart.

Table of Contents
Introduction and Background Information
Process of Care
Assessment of the Patient
Helping the Patient Cope
Doctor Assessment
Analysis of Process of Care
Identification of All Primary Causative Factors
Experimental Method: Multiple Group Pretest-Posttest with Control Group
Results
Implementation of Program
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"In SunHealth Hospital we have an ICU equipped with 12-bed surgical and an 8-bed medical intensive care unit. We understand that we must implement a program to reduce the risk of this type of nosocomial infection. We have looked at the strategies used by other hospitals including Owensboro Medical Health System Care Intensive Unit, which is a hospital of similar size and patient mix in terms of age distribution and community background. We decided to implement a program that resembles some of the preventive measures used by them in order to assess whether the incidence of VAP can also be reduced at our hospital."

More papers on Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia:

• Article Review # 150339 : "Preventing Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia"
• Research Paper # 145330 : "Prevention of Ventilator Associated Pneumonia"
• Research Paper # 108243 : "Normal Saline Usage and Pneumonia"

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