Can you find a clinical guideline on VAP? What evidence is provided?

Health professionals noticed that ventilator-dependent adults often developed pneumonia. They started questioning what might be going on. They reviewed the literature and found that there was little evidence to support this phenomenon, although a few studies had addressed the topic. Subsequently, more and more institutions examined ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Based on these reviews, guidelines or best practices were developed to decrease the incidence of VAP in adults. Now, research and EBP studies examine VAP as a measure of quality of care, consider costs associated with VAP versus preventive costs, and use VAP as a benchmarking tool for quality care and patient safety (Ruffell & Adamcova, 2008; Uckay, Ahmed, Sax, & Pittet, 2008).