Tabish Humayun^1,, Nasser Alshanbari¹, Adel Alanazi¹, Yvonne S. Aldecoa¹, Khalid H. Alanazi¹, Ghada Bin Saleh¹, Mohammed Alqahtani¹, Aiman El-Saed²

BACKGROUND: Although the rates of ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) have been estimated in Saudi Arabia, however national surveillance data for VAP has never been reported earlier. OBJECTIVES: To estimate VAP rates and ventilator utilization ratios in 105 Ministry of health (MOH) hospitals and to benchmark them with International Standards. METHODS: It was a prospective surveillance study in 15 different types of intensive care units (ICUs) between January 2018 and December 2019. The data were entered into the health electronic surveillance network (HESN) program. The methods of US National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) center for infection control were used. RESULTS: During two years of surveillance covering 1,469,658 patient-days and 569,961 ventilator-days, a total 1,694 VAP events were identified. The overall MOH VAP rate was 2.97 (95% confidence 2.83-3.11) per 1000 ventilator-days and the overall ventilator utilization ratio was 0.39 (95% confidence 0.387- 0.389). VAP rates were highest in adult medical (4.40), pediatric cardiothoracic (3.64), and adult medical surgical ICUs (3.61). VAP standardized infection ratio across all types of ICUs in MOH hospitals were 29% lower than GCC hospitals, 78% lower than International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) hospitals, and 191% higher than NHSN hospitals. Ventilator standardized utilization ratio in all types of ICUs in MOH hospitals were 19% lower than GCC hospitals, 32% higher than INICC hospitals, and 50% higher than NHSN hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: Using huge standardized data, the current report can serve as a unique national VAP benchmark, fostering a culture of competitiveness between the hospitals and regions.

ventilator associated pneumonia, ventilator, healthcare, infection control, benchmarking, surveillance