Evaluating the impact of an oral care initiative on the risk of non-ventilator-associated hospital-acquired pneumonia using electronic clinical data and diagnostic coding surveillance criteria.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

We assessed the impact of an oral care initiative on non-ventilator-associated hospital-acquired pneumonia (NV-HAP) risk using two different measurement strategies.

Methods

We evaluated changes in NV-HAP events among all patients admitted to 17 VA Medical Centers (1) across the period 10/01/2015-12/31/2019, and (2) one-year pre- vs post- each hospital's oral care initiative start date. We modeled and compared observed versus predicted NV-HAP events per hospitalization using (1) an electronic clinical definition and (2) diagnosis codes, adjusting for patients' demographics, vital signs, and laboratory results at presentation.

Results

Among 333,257 hospitalizations, 1,922 (0.58%) met NV-HAP electronic clinical criteria and 2,386 (0.72%) diagnostic coding crite

SUBMITTER: Jones BE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12779461 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature