Fisher-Titus cheers staff over major milestone

NORWALK — This past week, Fisher-Titus celebrated 15 years without ventilator-associated pneumonia. "Thank you to our incredible medical staff for their unwavering dedication and diligence in keeping our patients safe every single day," according to a health care organizational statement. "We're so proud of this milestone." Kayla Pfeiffer, Fisher-Titus' patient safety officer and accreditation manager, provided some additional context into this milestone: When we say "Fisher-Titus has gone 15 years without a case of ventilator-associated pneumonia," we're highlighting a major achievement in patient safety and quality of care. Ventilator-associated pneumonia is a serious hospital-acquired infection that can occur in patients who are on mechanical ventilation. It's associated with longer hospital stays and increased risk of complications or death. Preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia requires rigorous adherence to evidence-based practices, including proper hand hygiene, oral care protocols, head-of-bed elevation, daily assessments and more for readiness to wean from the ventilator. Reaching 15 years (of being) ventilator-associated pneumonia-free means our team has consistently maintained these high standards over a long period, and we are so incredibly proud of them all. We created the Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Awareness Saves Lives campaign and commemorative shirts to recognize the dedication of our frontline staff and to raise awareness about how proactive infection prevention can truly save lives. The ICU nursing and respiratory teams work hard along with other health care team members to ensure patient safety and ventilator-associated pneumonia prevention.