Under the new framework, there are four different surveillance targets with different levels of acuity: ventilator-associated condition, infection-related ventilator-associated complication, possible pneumonia and probably pneumonia. The author, Michael Klompas, MD, MPH, was involved in a group convened by the CDC to develop new ventilator-associated pneumonia metrics. He identifies three major benefits of the new surveillance definitions:
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1. “The opportunity to identify a population of patients who have serious complications that have previously not been acknowledged or attended to by quality-improvement programs,” Dr. Klompas wrote.
2. Hospitals can benchmark their rates against peer institutions more effectively.
3. Hospitals have a routine benchmark for antibiotic prescribing in intensive care units.
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