ICU Safety and Culture Collaborative (2005)

The Maryland Patient Safety Center’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Safety and Culture Collaborative, conducted in 2005, brought together teams from 83% (38 out of 46) of Maryland hospitals representing nearly 90% (799 out of 893) of the state’s ICU beds. The collaborative addressed the preventable death and illness related with healthcare-associated blood stream infections (BSI) and pneumonia in patients on ventilators. Results during the program, which ran from 2005-2006, included improvements in ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and BSI rates among participating hospitals. Improvements in these measures are associated with saved lives as well as reduced costs to the healthcare system.