Based on findings from the pilot study that NV-HAP
occurs across many geographic regions in the United
States and across various types of medical care systems,
we launched a pilot study in one of the hospital systems
to determine if improvements of basic nursing care
could impact NV-HAP rates. This pilot intervention study
occurred in an urban community, not-for-profit, twohospital
campus, 650-bed medical center system.
The first step in the design of our pilot study was to
ensure we had an accurate diagnosis of HAP based on
CDC diagnostic criteria (e.g., in addition to confirmatory
x-ray, presence of leukocytosis and fever; CDC, 2013).
We found 115 adults with NV-HAP (as compared to 198
cases using preliminary screening of ICD-9 codes and xray
alone). During the same year (2010), the two hospitals
had only one case of ventilator-associated pneumonia