Contacts Clinical Contact Rosa M. Johnson, ARNP, MN, CPHQ Director, Medicare Operations, Washington Qualis Health 206-364-9700, ext. 2142 rosaj@qualishealth.org The Six Changes Rapid Response Teams Prevent Adverse Drug Events Reliable, Evidence-Based Care for Acute Myocardial Infarction Prevent Central Line Infections Prevent Surgical Site Infections Prevent Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Download Helper Adobe Acrobat PDF files Webex presentations Audio files

Prevent Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia
… by implementing a series of interdependent, scientifically grounded steps.

The power of a “bundle” is that it brings together those scientifically grounded concepts that are both necessary and sufficient to improve the clinical outcome of interest. The “ventilator bundle” includes five components:

• elevation of the head of the bed to at least 30 degrees,
• daily “sedation vacations,”
• daily assessment of readiness to extubate,
• peptic ulcer disease prophylaxis, and
• deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis.

The first three components are directed at preventing VAP and the latter two components at preventing other complications associated with mechanical ventilation. The focus of measurement is the completion of the entire bundle as a single intervention, rather than completion of its individual components.

Resources to get you started

• One-page summary
• How-to Guide
• Presentation with Facilitator Notes
• Annotated Bibliography
• Recording of the March 30 Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection/Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Informational Call
• Presentation from July 18 WSHA Web Conference
  Highlighted the experiences of Overlake Medical Center and Swedish Medical Center with care technique "bundles," as well as how to implement such bundles in rural hospitals.

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References
¹Berwick, Donald, Presentation to the Association of Health Care Journalists, AHCJ Sixth National Conference: A Discussion with Donald Berwick, 4/2/05. Transcript provided by kaisernetwork.org, a free service of the Kaiser Family Foundation.