Nonventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia (NV-HAP) is a significant burden in US acute care hospitals and poses a risk to nonelderly, nonintensive unit (ICU) patients, according to new research.
In an effort to determine the incidence and overall burden of NV-HAP, researchers retrospectively reviewed the charts of NV-HAP cases at 21 US hospitals and searched for 2014 International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes for pneumonia not present on admission.
Across the 21 hospitals, the researchers identified 1,300 patients with NV-HAP (rate, 0.12 to 2.28 per 1,000 patient days). The majority of NV-HAP infections (70.8%) were acquired outside of ICUs, but 18.8% of cases required transfer into the ICU. Most of the cases did not have interventions aimed at pneumonia prevention in the 24 hours prior to diagnosis.
