370 Days VAP Free: How Did We Get There?
An Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) initiative had been implemented as a Six Sigma Green Belt project at University of North Carolina Children's Hospital to improve the quality and safety of care for critically ill pediatric patients. Through the efforts of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) clinical leaders, frontline staff, and program management teams, we have made several improvements in eliminating hospital–acquired infections (HAIs), in communication systems, and in partnering with families. Recommendations from the IHI made it clear that our HAI numbers needed much improvement, and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) was one of those infections targeted: In a 1-year period, there was a VAP rate of 2.6/1,000 ventilator days in the PICU.1 Click link to read the full article.
From RT for Decision Makers in Respiratory Care
