Implementation of French recommendations for the prevention and the treatment of hospital-acquired pneumonia: a cluster-randomized trial

Link to article at PubMed

Clin Infect Dis. 2020 Sep 24:ciaa1441. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa1441. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: We determined whether an audit on the adherence to guidelines for hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) for can improve the outcomes of patients in intensive care units (ICUs).

METHODS: This study was conducted at 35 ICUs in 30 hospitals. We included consecutive adult patients hospitalized in ICUs for three days or more. After a three-month baseline period followed by the dissemination of recommendations, an audit on the compliance to recommendations (audit period) was followed by a three-month cluster-randomized trial. We randomly assigned ICUs to either audit and feedback (intervention group) or participation to a national registry (control group). The primary outcome was the duration of ICU stay.

RESULTS: Among 1,856 patients enrolled, 602, 669, and 585 were recruited in the baseline, audit, and intervention periods, respectively. The composite measure of compliance was 47(38-56)% in the intervention group and 42(25-53)% in the control group (p=0.001). As compared to the baseline period, the ICU length of stay was reduced by 3.2 days in the intervention group (p=0.07) and by 2.8 days in the control group (p=0.02). The duration of ICU stay was 7 (5-14) in the control group and 9 (5-20) days in the intervention group (p=0.10). After adjustment for unbalanced baseline characteristics, the hazard ratio for being discharged alive from ICU in the control group was 1.17 (95% CI, 0.69 to 2.01; p=0.10).

CONCLUSIONS: The publication of French guidelines for HAP was associated with a reduction of the ICU length of stay. However, the realization of an audit to improve their application did not further improve outcomes.

PMID:32970811 | DOI:10.1093/cid/ciaa1441

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