To improve prevention efforts for one of the most common healthcare-associated infections in the U.S., the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) has published an Implementation Guide on Non-Ventilator Healthcare-Associated Pneumonia (NV-HAP).
Published as a supplement to the May issue of the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC) and available free online, the new guide reviews current literature, infection prevention strategies and potential tools and techniques to guide surveillance, detection and prevention efforts for NV-HAP across the continuum of care.
NV-HAP is a preventable healthcare-associated infection (HAI) with mortality rates as high as 31%, according to published reports. In the US, NV-HAP is one of the top-two most prevalent HAIs. Those at risk for developing NV-HAP include people with compromised immune systems or cardiovascular and pulmonary disease. NV-HAP remains understudied, with most published studies focusing on ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Tracking and preventing NV-HAP previously proved challenging because of a lack of consensus guidelines, issues with identifying cases and standardizing surveillance protocols.
The new APIC NV-HAP Guide serves to highlight the importance of understanding NV-HAP and its impact on patient outcomes and provide an overview of the current evidence on NV-HAP and encourage actions that lead to prevention. The guide is organized into chapters, covering different aspects of NV-HAP, including: “Pediatrics,” “Taking action to improve NV-HAP outcomes,” and “The infection preventionist’s role in identifying NV-HAP.”
“It was a privilege to work to showcase prevention strategies for non-ventilator healthcare-associated pneumonia,” said lead author Linda Greene, RN, BS, MPS, CIC, FAPIC, manager of Infection Prevention at University of Rochester Highland Hospital in Rochester, New York. “As an understudied, and often under-appreciated healthcare-associated infection, NV-HAP can have devastatingly negative impacts on patient outcomes.”
