• Ayush Gupta, Arti Kapil, Sushil Kumar Kabra, Rakesh Lodha, Seema Sood, Benu Dhawan, Bimal K Das, and Vishnubhathla Sreenivas.
• Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
• Am J Infect Control. 2014 Feb 1; 42 (2): 111-5.

BackgroundOngoing educational programs targeting health care professionals have shown positive outcomes by reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with health care-associated infections (HAIs). We undertook this study to measure the impact of such a program in a pediatric critical care unit of a developing country.MethodsThis prospective study was conducted in 2 time periods of 6 months each, with an educational intervention for resident doctors and nurses in between. The rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) during the preintervention and postintervention periods were estimated by active surveillance.ResultsThe incidence density of VAP was reduced by 28% (20.2 vs 14.6 per 1,000 ventilator-days; P = .21, Z test) despite a significant increase in the ventilator utilization ratio during the postintervention period (0.64 vs 0.88; P < .0001, Pearson's χ² test). There was a statistically significant reduction in mortality among patients who received mechanical ventilation for ≥48 hours in the postintervention period (49.3% vs 31.4%; P = .029, Pearson's χ² test).ConclusionsEducational programs have a positive impact on reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with HAIs. Incidence rates based on device-days should be compared by keeping the variations in device utilization ratio in mind.Copyright © 2014 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

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