The Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) at UNC Hospitals recently celebrated its fifth straight year of having no cases of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).
Widespread use of mechanical ventilation puts the CICU’s critically ill patients at a particularly high risk for developing VAP. In 2008, the CICU began new practices to help reduce cases of VAP and keep their patients safe. CICU staff knew that cases of VAP would be reduced through the changes they implemented. But last year the CICU celebrated four consecutive years without a VAP — an accomplishment unheard of among CICUs nationwide — and this year the CICU reached its fifth year of being VAP-free.
Read more here in a story from the UNC Health Care newsroom.