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"100,000 Lives Campaign" strategy for reducing healthcare-acquired infections

Accreditation Connection, August 29, 2005

Over a five-year period, the average ventilator-assisted pneumonia (VAP) rate at the Saint Barnabas Health Care System in New Jersey was 4.4 per 1,000 ventilator patients, significantly less than the National
Nosocomial Infections Surveillance rate of 15.6. Controlling VAP is essential, says Jeremias Murillo, MD, medical director for IC at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, one of eight affiliates of the Saint Barnabas
Health Care System.

The 100,000 Lives Campaign provided Murillo and physicians at other facilities in the system with a wealth of information and ideas, which ultimately led them to an IC plan that has all but wiped out VAP at those facilities.

Because VAP occurs when a patient is on a respirator long enough for bacteria to accumulate or be introduced in the airways, health officials at Newark aimed at limiting the number of ventilator days for each patient.

The plan at Saint Barnabas, which relies heavily on information shared between the campaign's member facilities, calls for a team effort of steady evaluation. "Integration and collaboration is a catch phrase," says Murillo.

The proof is in the pudding. Average ventilator days in the Saint Barnabas fell from six to three. The cases of VAP in the multihospital system also decreased to 2.2 cases per 1,000 patients. Amazingly, the Newark facility reports zero cases since joining the 100,000 Lives Campaign.

Adapted from a story that appeared in the August issue of Briefings on Infection Control

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