Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP)

Patient safety remains the most important priority for STEGH and this involves ensuring that patients are not at risk for contracting healthcare-associated infections.

We have a number of practices in place to help prevent and control infections, including a comprehensive hand hygiene program. As of April 30, 2009, all Ontario hospitals are required to post quarterly Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP) rates to further promote accountability and transparency within the health system.

What is a Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP)?

For our public reporting purposes, ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) is defined as a pneumonia (lung infection) occurring in patients in an intensive care unit (ICU), requiring, external mechanical breathing support (a ventilator) intermittently or continuously, through a breathing tube for more than 48 hours.

VAP can develop in patients for many reasons. Because they are relying on an external machine to breath, their normal coughing, yawning, and deep breath reflexes are suppressed. Furthermore, they may have a depressed immune system, making them more vulnerable to infection. ICU teams have many ways to try to assist patients with these normal breathing reflexes, but despite this, patients are still at risk for developing pneumonia.

What are health care-associated infections?

Sometimes when patients are admitted to the hospital, they can get infections. These are called health care-associated infections.

If you have any questions about the information below or about our hospital’s infection prevention and control program, please contact us.

VAP Rates at STEGH as Reported to the Ministry

STEGH	Jan -Mar 2009	Apr -Jun 2009	Jul - Sep 2009	Oct - Dec 2009	Jan - Mar 2010	Apr-Jun 2010
Case	0	< 5	0	0	0	<5
Rate	0	7.94	0	0	0	12.66

All hospitals with ICUs are required to report into the Critical Care Information System (CCIS) – a centralized data collection system where hospitals report a variety of critical care information – must publicly report the VAP indicator data. These hospitals are considered "eligible" for VAP reporting.

These Ontario hospitals are posting their quarterly VAP rate and case count for those infections acquired in their facility, using the following formula:

total # of ICU cases of VAP after 48 hours of mechanical ventilation       x 100
total # of ventilator days for ICU patients 18 years and older

Due to the low number of ICU patients on a ventilator (ventilator days) at STEGH, we recognize that even one new case of ventilator associated pneumonia will result in a high VAP rate.

What is STEGH doing to improve patient safety?

STEGH is participating in the VAP CLI Canadian ICU collaborative. This collaborative involves hospitals across Canada who by using and sharing evidence based learning has developed key methods aimed at reducing central line infections. STEGH has a multidisciplinary health care team who are actively working through the implementation of all components and measuring our VAP data to identify our compliance and infection rates.

STEGH continues to implement the ‘Just Clean Your Hands’ hand hygiene program through out the hospital. We audit our compliance with this program and share the results with staff so that we can identify any areas of improvement.

What can patients do to help reduce their chances of infection?

For all patients who are ventilated, we are keeping the head of bed greater than 30 degrees day and night unless medically contra-indicated. If you notice the head of bed lower, please ask the staff why the head of bed is down, as a reminder.

Frequent hand cleaning is a good way to prevent the spread of infection. Hand hygiene involves everyone in the hospital, including patients.

Learn More…

Learn More About VAP

Infection Prevention and Control at STEGH

More patient-specific information is available at www.ontario.ca/patientsafety and www.oha.com/patientsafetytips and www.oha.com/cleanhandsprotectlives.

Visit the Ministry of Health Care and Long-Term Care website to view other hospital's rates

If you have any questions about this information or about our hospital’s infection prevention and control program, please contact us.