AHRQ Safety Program for Mechanically Ventilated Patients

This ongoing project aims to make care safer for patients in intensive care units (ICUs) who are mechanically ventilated. These patients require the assistance of a ventilator to breathe, a life-saving intervention that is accompanied by a risk of complications. The project will help ICU staff apply the proven principles and methods of AHRQ’s Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) to reduce complications of mechanical ventilation that occur in patients, including ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).

About This Project

Complications related to ventilator use in ICU patients are not uncommon. VAP is one such complication, affecting as many as 20 percent of ICU patients who require a ventilator for more than 48 hours. Complications such as VAP increase the likelihood of hospital readmission, long-term health problems, and death. They also increase the costs of care. Many complications related to ventilator use, including VAP, are largely preventable.

To address this problem, AHRQ has funded a 3-year project to help staff in intensive care units use CUSP principles to reduce complications from mechanical ventilation, including VAP.

This ongoing project is expected to be completed in fall 2016. At the conclusion of this project, the materials used by project participants will be assembled into a toolkit of evidence-based, practical resources that others can use at no charge.

Project Partners

This project is conducted through a partnership that brings together subject matter experts and providers in the field. Partners for this project include—

Johns Hopkins Medicine Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.
Michigan Health & Hospital Association Keystone Center.
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute.

For more information, email CUSP4MVP@jhmi.edu.

Page last reviewed March 2015

Internet Citation: AHRQ Safety Program for Mechanically Ventilated Patients. March 2015. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/quality-patient-safety/hais/tools/mvp/index.html