Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is defined as pneumonia that develops 48 hours or longer after patients has intubated and received mechanical ventilation. An infection may develop if microscopic organisms or germs invade the intubation of the patient’s lower respiratory tract and lung parenchyma (Koenig, S. M. , 2006). According to the 2009 National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) report, the accountability for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) preventions includes hospital’s CEO and senior management.
They must assure that the hospital supports an infection prevention and control program to adequately prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). They must also ensure that proper training and educational programs are in place to prevent Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) for the medical staff, patients, and family members (Rebmann, T. , 2010). According to a study by Cynthia Crosby, Fighting and managing ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), it is the second highest common nosocomial infection and the leading cause of nosocomial-related mortality amd is the highest during the first five days of ventilation.
About 300,000 cases of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) happen annually in the United States (Crosby, C. T. , 2005). The CEO of an acute care hospital in Virginia and the board should have a trusting partnership, where both work together, united as team to accomplish the highest level of success. Without trust, they may be reluctant to engage in discussions, share viewpoints, or raise issues. The relationship can be strengthen through a definite agreement of one another’s needs and expectations, communication, goals, objectives, and allocating vital information.
The relationship between the board, CEO, and clinical staff is also important for better health care delivery. Assuming the phone call from a member of the Board that Consumer Report has just ranked the hospital as #1 in the State for Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in the ICU, is a warning or alerting the CEO of the Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) high rates may be a negative impact of high infection rates or adverse reactions.
The CEO must formally respond to the board member by generating a memorandum via electronic mail and postal mail as well as the other members of the board to fully acknowledge the issue and inform them of the necessary investigative process to resolve the problem as soon as possible. The CEO must also inform and respond to the medical staff, and employees internally through a memorandum via electronic mail and respond to the community in a public newsletter or press that the hospital’s infection control team will address the issue.
The role of the infection control team is to decrease the incidence of preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), which includes policy, surveillance data, risk assessment, and infection prevention interventions. The CEO must explain the active involvement of all health care professionals in preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) as well as the past data and outcomes of cases of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), furthermore ensuring that all patients will be under the care of all evidence-based recommendations.
The CEO must rely on the hospital’s infection control officer and the hospital’s infection control team to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) by assuring that all patients on ventilators are cared for using all evidence-based recommendations, which must be proven nationally to decrease the exposure of occurring ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). The infection control team must confirm or deny the accuracy of the data from the Consumers Reports (Rebmann, T. , 2010). A root cause analysis (RCA) technique must be structured to analyze the hospital’s comprehensive ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) prevention program.
The infection control team must perform the root cause analysis (RCA) to every ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) case to identify the opportunities for improvement. The team will identify if there is a pattern in the type or spread of the microscopic organisms or germs. Root cause analysis (RCA) have been shown to be helpful in reporting errors and make difference between active and underlying errors, identifying the urgency for change to policies and procedures as well as suggesting system changes for improving risk factors (Hughes, R. G. , 2009).
The root cause analysis (RCA) may identify key some preventions. A study by Holly Keyt, Prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia in the intensive care unit: A review of the clinically relevant recent advancements, suggest the use of non-vasive positive pressure ventilation (NPPV) to reduce the risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) as well as mortality benefit with different illnesses (Keyt, H. 2014).
Another prevention measurement may be improving the hospital’s educational training programs and oral care techniques for the medical staff, employees, and family members. Another key prevention could be to minimize the use of endotracheal intubation, the duration of mechanical ventilation, and the frequency of respiratory equipment replacements. (Putting a Stop to Ventilator-Associated pneumonia, 2009).