Incidence and Predictors of Nonventilator Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia in a Community Hospital

Background: Nonventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia (NV-HAP) is a common hospital-acquired condition that is amenable to basic nursing care interventions.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of NV-HAP in a California community hospital and to identify the patient and nursing care factors including missed nursing care associated with its development.

Methods: A retrospective study identified possible NV-HAP cases with ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision) codes and then validated cases using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmatory criteria.

Results: The incidence of NV-HAP in our hospital was 0.64 cases per 1000 patient-days. Patient factors most strongly associated with NV-HAP were age (each year of increased age was associated with a 4% increased likelihood of developing NV-HAP) (OR = 1.04-1.07) and the presence of underlying disease, which reduced odds of developing NV-HAP by 36% (OR = 0.36; 95% CI, 0.12-0.98). Head-of-bed elevation reduced by 26% the odds of developing NV-HAP (OR = 0.26; 95% CI, 0.07-0.08).

Conclusions: NV-HAP can be predicted and potentially prevented. Paradoxically, the presence of underlying disease was not positively associated with the development of NV-HAP in this study.