title: Interobserver variability in ventilator-associated pneumonia surveillance.
abstract: Three infection control personnel and 1 physician independently evaluated 50 ventilated patients for ventilator-associated pneumonia through retrospective chart reviews. The infection control reviewers used Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria; the physician used clinical judgment. Infection control personnel labelled between 11 and 20 patients with VAP (kappa = 0.40). The physician diagnosed 7 cases. Interobserver variability in the assessment of ventilator-associated pneumonia is high.
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA 02245, USA. mklompas@partners.org
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Klompas
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D053717:Pneumonia, Ventilator-Associated / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult