Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the additional contibution of the ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) to the treatment costs of the patients hospitalized in our intensive care unit (ICU) in 2014.
Materials and Methods: The active prospective surveillance of the ICU for 2014 was performed by Infectious Disease Specsialist and Infection Control Nurses. VAP was diagnosed according to the CDC criteria and antibiotic treatment was provided appropriately. The contribution of the treatment cost of VAP to the overall hospitalisation costs was calculated.
Results: Out of the 941 patients hospitalized in ICU in 2014, 21 patients had developed 23 episodes of VAP. Eleven (52.4%) patients were female and the mean age was 60.3 years. The average onset of VAP was 15.9 days. The most frequent causative pathogen was Acinetobacter spp. (54.2%), which was followed by K. pneumoniae (20.8%), P. aeruginosa (16.7%) and E.coli (8.3%). The VAP rate was 6.2 per 1000 patient days while the mortality rate was 66.7% among patients with VAP. The average treatment cost of VAP was 462.66 Euros. This cost covered only the antibiotic medication while, the radiological, microbiological and biochemical and other expenses were excluded.
Discussion and Conclusion: VAP is an important issue for ICU due to its strong association with mortality and morbidity and additional contibution to the treatment costs of the patients. Besides, it is important for quality indicator in ICU. Therefore, the main goals were to take necessary precautions to reduce the rate of VAP and to follow these measures closely. Reducing the rate of VAP will help to decrease the treatment costs and the rate of morbidity and mortality.
- Copyright ©ERS 2015