www.ccnonline.org CriticalCareNurse Vol 36, No. 5, OCTOBER 2016 e1 Feature Use of Ventilator Bundle and Staff Education to Decrease Ventilator- Associated Pneumonia in Intensive Care Patients Maria Parisi, RN, MSc, PhD Vasiliki Gerovasili, MD, PhD Stavros Dimopoulos, MD, PhD Efstathia Kampisiouli, RN, MSc Christina Goga, MD Efstathia Perivolioti, MD, PhD Athina Argyropoulou, MD, PhD Christina Routsi, MD, PhD Sotirios Tsiodras, MD, PhD Serafeim Nanas, MD, PhD BACKGROUND Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), one of the most common hospital-acquired infec- tions, has a high mortality rate. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the incidence of VAP in a multidisciplinary intensive care unit and to examine the effects of the implementation of ventilator bundles and staff education on its incidence. METHODS A 24-month-long before/after study was conducted, divided into baseline, intervention, and postintervention periods. VAP incidence and rate, the microbiological profle, duration of mechanical ventilation, and length of stay in the intensive care unit were recorded and compared between the periods. RESULTS Of 1097 patients evaluated, 362 met the inclusion criteria. The baseline VAP rate was 21.6 per 1000 ventilator days. During the postintervention period, it decreased to 11.6 per 1000 ventilator days (P = .01). Length of stay in the intensive care unit decreased from 36 to 27 days (P = .04), and duration of mechanical ventilation decreased from 26 to 21 days (P = .06). CONCLUSIONS VAP incidence was high in a general intensive care unit in a Greek hospital. However, implementation of a ventilator bundle and staff education has decreased both VAP incidence and length of stay in the unit. (Critical Care Nurse. 2016;36[5]:e1-e7) ©2016 American Association of Critical-Care Nurses doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4037/ccn2016520 V entilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is one of the most common hospital-acquired infections. It is a form of nosocomial pneumonia that occurs in patients undergoing mechanical ventilation for longer than 48 hours. 1 Recently reported VAP rates range from 1 to 4 cases per 1000 ventilator days in industrialized countries and up to 13 cases per 1000 ventilator days in developing countries. 2 VAP is the most serious health care–associated infection and is the leading cause of morbidity and Downloaded from http://aacnjournals.org/ccnonline/article-pdf/36/5/e1/115049/e1.pdf by guest on 12 June 2022