Accurately Measuring Preventable Ventilator-associated Pneumonia Deaths Using Observational Data: It's about Time

Albin and Admon discuss the study by Steen and colleagues on the rates of preventable mortality due to ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). VAP is the most commonly diagnosed infection among critically ill patients, with associated all-cause mortality rates of 20-50%. Prevention of VAP represents a cornerstone of infection prevention efforts and is a benchmark for hospital performance reporting. VAP is fundamentally a complication of critical illness; thus, the substantial mortality experienced by patients with VAP is in no small part a consequence of their underlying critical illness.