Margaret Thompson, RN, MSN, CPHQ, says the low ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) rate at the Kaiser Bellflower Medical Center in Bellflower, Calfornia, is due to the use of the Ventilator Bundle and the careful oversight of the unit’s intensivists. Thompson is the hospital’s Director of Quality Improvement.
“Because of the bundle steps and the intensivists’ management style, our patients have a minimum of vent days,” says Thompson. “They assess readiness to extubate several times a day, not just daily. If they are ready to extubate late in the afternoon, we can do that because the intensivist is there, instead of waiting until the next day because the doctor’s gone.”
Another advantage for this 12-bed ICU is that its director, Timothy Hulbert, MD, is board-certified in both intensive care and infectious disease, and has no patient panel of his own. “It is a luxury, because he is not juggling his own patients with the ICU patients. We believe this model makes a real difference,” says Thompson.
But it’s not just the ICU’s leaders who are preventing VAP. “There is a commitment on everyone’s part, the doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, every member of the team,” says Thompson. “Everyone takes a great deal of pride in doing the best they can, in delivering care that is effective and safe.”
02/05/2007
