Prevention of Postoperative Pneumonia in Noncardiac Surgical Patients: A Prospective Study Using the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Database

Postoperative pneumonia increases morbidity, length of stay, and hospital readmission rates. Current data support the use of perioperative chlorhexidine gluconate in elective cardiac surgery patients to prevent postoperative pneumonia. The objectives of this study were to implement a resident-driven quality improvement project and determine the efficacy of an oral care bundle in preventing postoperative pneumonia among noncardiac surgical patients. A retrospective review of postoperative pneumonia occurrences at our hospital captured by the NSQIP database from 2014 to 2016 was conducted. A pre- and postoperative pulmonary care bundle was implemented in all surgical patients undergoing general anesthesia and outcomes were tracked by NSQIP for up to 90 days postoperatively for calendar year 2017. The NSQIP-reported incidence of postoperative pneumonia at our hospital was reduced from 0.8 to 0 per cent (P = 0). The risk-adjusted smoothed rate fell from 1.17 (95% confidence interval 0.77–1.66) in 2014 to 0.33 (95% confidence interval 0.03–0.98) in 2017. We encountered multiple systematic issues while conducting this study, which led to an imbalanced compliance to the preoperative (90%) and postoperative (31%) bundle; however, there was no significant difference between these two groups. Successful implementation of a resident-driven quality project resulted in a decreased rate of postoperative pneumonia.