Economic and Epidemiological Impact of an Improvement Plan for the Decrease of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia in a Tertiary Hospital in Mexico.

Introduction: The objective of this work is to measure the economic and epidemiological impact of the implementation of a comprehensive quality improvement plan (CQIP) for the prevention and reduction of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in the adult intensive care unit in a Mexican hospital.

Materials And Methods: A cross-sectional, ambispective, comparative, analytical, observational study was conducted with epidemiological data on cases of health care-associated infections and with information from the Hospital Epidemiological Surveillance Unit from August 2017 to July 2018.

Results: Before to the implementation of the CQIP, there were a total of 26 VAPs, with a rate of 32.2 per 1000 ventilator-days. After the implementation of CQIP, there were 14 VAPs, with a rate of 23.4 per 1000 ventilator-days, with a 46.2% decrease in incidence (P = 0.02). Before the installation of the interventions, the expense was $4,471,073.80, with an average cost per case of $171,964.38. The total cost per bed-day in the adult intensive care unit was $331,280.00, and for hospitalization, the cost was $192,038.00; for the use of antimicrobials, an expense of $749,689.20 was calculated, and for the use of mechanical ventilation, the cost was $2,974,275.60. The percentage of decrease in the cost of VAP after CQIP implementation was 46.5%.

Conclusions: The implementation of CQIP based on the risk evaluation factors of VAP resulted in their decrease, which is reflected in a patient safety and quality care improvement.