Healthcare-Associated Pneumonia in a Mexican Tertiary Care Center Micro to Systemic Analysis: A 2017–2019 Case Series Study

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify the biological, microbiological, and healthcare factors related to the occurrence of nosocomial pneumonia in our confirmed cases during 2017–2019. Methods: We conducted a case series study. For the selection of the cases we used the CDC criteria for hospital-acquired pneumonia, we collected cases from the data set for healthcare-associated infections from a tertiary-care hospital in Mexico City. For the quantitative analysis, we used Stata v14 software, and we obtained frequencies, proportions, accumulated incidence rate, lethality rate, central tendency, and dispersion metrics. This study was a secondary data set analysis; we obtained signed authorization for the use of the data from the Epidemiological Surveillance Unit. Results: During our analysis period (January 2017 to June 2019), we identified 107 cases that fulfilled the CDC criteria: 47 cases (43.93%) from 2017, 38 cases (35.51%) from 2018, and 20.56% from 2019. The month that reported the highest frequency was February, with 17 cases (15.89%). The median age was 63 years (range, 0–97 years; IQR, 36). The most affected age group was 65 years (48.60%), and the most affected 5-year age group was 75–79 years (13.08%). Moreover, 60 cases (56.07%) were men and 47 (43.93%) were women. Regarding the reason for discharge, 71% were discharged due to improvement, 27% died, and 2% were transferred to another healthcare facility. Also, 17 patients (15.89%) required readmission due to respiratory illness within 72 hours of previous discharge. The most common diagnosis was a solid malignant neoplasm (20.19%), followed by heart or vascular malformation or anomaly (12.50%). The mean inpatient hospital stay was 39.95 days (46.40; median, 27 days, range, 2–317 days; IQR 35 days). The median time elapsed until detection was 14 days. The hospitalization area with the most cases was the intensive care unit, with 24 cases (22.43%); the service with most cases was oncology with 21 cases (20.56%). The most isolated pathogen was Pseudomonas aeruginosa (14%). Moreover, 59% were gram-negative, 36% were gram-positive, 19.67% were viruses, and 14.75% were fungi. Our accumulated-incidence-rate was 0.58 cases per 1,000 patient days and our case-fatality-rate was 25.23%. Furthermore, 41% of cases required invasive mechanical ventilation, 52.34% required noninvasive mechanical ventilation, 5% cases had an endo-pleural tube, 9.35% had a nasogastric tube, and 41.12% had a central venous catheter. The most-prescribed antimicrobial was meropenem (33.33%), and meropenem-resistance was 61.54%. Conclusions: Infection prevention efforts should target oncological patients, critical-care units, and the elderly. We must reinforce our antimicrobial policy due to our overprescription of carbapenems. Early detection is needed to reduce mortality.

Funding: None

Disclosures: None