Dian Baker, Barbara Quinn

Because nonventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia (NV-HAP) is understudied, our purpose was to determine the incidence, overall burden, and level of documented pneumonia preventive interventions of NV-HAP in 24 U.S. hospitals. This retrospective chart review extracted NV-HAP cases as per the 2014 ICD-9-CM codes for pneumonia not present on admission and the 2013 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention case definition. Patient demographic data, outcomes, and documented preventive interventions were also collected. We found 1,300 NV-HAP patients who acquired NV-HAP (rate, 0.12-2.28 per 1,000 patient days) across the 21 hospitals that completed the data collection. Most NV-HAP infections (70.8%) were acquired outside of intensive care units (ICUs); 18.8% required transfer into the ICU. In the 24 hours prior to diagnosis, most of the patients did not have fundamental hospital care associated with pneumonia prevention. This multicenter, nationwide study highlights the significant burden of NV-HAP in the U.S. acute care hospital setting. We found that NV-HAP occurred on every hospital unit, including in younger, healthy patients. This indicates that although some patients are clearly at higher risk, all patients carry some NV-HAP risk. Therapeutic interventions aimed at NV-HAP prevention are frequently not provided for patients in acute care hospitals.