Infection control and hospital epidemiology : the official journal of the Society of Hospital Epidemiologists of America
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Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · Feb 2017
Multicenter StudyInterrater Reliability of Surveillance for Ventilator-Associated Events and Pneumonia.
OBJECTIVE To compare interrater reliabilities for ventilator-associated event (VAE) surveillance, traditional ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) surveillance, and clinical diagnosis of VAP by intensivists. DESIGN A retrospective study nested within a prospective multicenter quality improvement study. SETTING Intensive care units (ICUs) within 5 hospitals of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Epicenters. ⋯ The clinical correlation between VAE surveillance and intensivists' clinical assessments was poor. CONCLUSIONS Prospective surveillance using VAE criteria is more reliable than traditional VAP surveillance and clinical VAP diagnosis; the correlation between VAEs and clinically recognized pulmonary deterioration is poor. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:172-178.