Effects of continuous quality control on reducing incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia in intensive care unit

Abstract

Objective To observe the effects of continuous quality improvement on the incidence rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in intensive care unit (ICU) . Methods Totally 158 patients using ventilators in ICU of Hangzhou Red Cross Hospital between January and June 2016 were selected as the control group using convenient sampling, and another 165 patients using ventilators between January and June 2017 were selected as the observation group. Patients in the control group received conventional nursing care, while patients in the observation group received Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle Management with the quality of standardized nursing process, standardized upper respiratory tract management and hand hygiene continuously improved. Incidence rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) , rate of pass in oral nursing care and hand hygiene compliance in medical and nursing workers were compared between the two groups before and after improvement. SPSS 17.0 was used for statistical analysis. Results The incidence rate of VAP during the first half of 2017 totaled 5.07‰, a decrease of 6.42‰ compared with the first half of 2016. There was statistically significant difference in the incidence rate of VAP between the two groups (P<0.01) ; the rate of pass in oral nursing care after improvement (93.17%) was statistically higher than that before improvement (57.31%) (P<0.01) ; and the hand hygiene compliance after improvement (93.67%) was statistically higher than that before improvement (67.33%) (P<0.01) . Conclusions Continuous quality improvement can reduce the incidence rate of VAP in ICU, which is operable and worth promoting in clinical practice. Key words: Intensive care unit; Continuous quality improvement; Ventilator-associated pneumonia; Incidence rate