An educational intervention to reduce ventilator-associated pneumonia in an integrated health system: a comparison of effects.

Study Objectives: To determine whether an educational initiative could decrease rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia in a regional health-care system.

Setting: Two teaching hospitals (one adult, one pediatric) and two community hospitals in an integrated health system.

Design: Preintervention and postintervention observational study.

The impact of bedside behavior on catheter-related bacteremia in the intensive care unit.

Hypothesis: The success of an educational program in July 1999 that lowered the catheter-related bloodstream infection (CRBSI) rate in our intensive care unit (ICU) 3-fold is correlated with compliance with "best-practice" behaviors.

Design: Before-after trial.

Setting: Surgical ICU in a referral hospital.

Ventilator-associated pneumonia in a multi-hospital system: differences in microbiology by location.

Objective: To determine whether there were differences in the microbiologic etiologies of ventilator-associated pneumonia in different clinical settings.

Design: Observational retrospective cohort study of microbiologic etiologies of ventilator-associated pneumonia from 1998 to 2001 in a multi-hospital system. Microbiologic results were compared between hospitals and between different intensive care units (ICUs) within hospitals.

Effect of an education program aimed at reducing the occurrence of ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Objective: The purpose of the study was to determine whether an education initiative could decrease the hospital rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Design: Pre- and postintervention observational study.

Setting: Five intensive care units in Barnes-Jewish Hospital, an urban teaching hospital.