title: Variability in mean duration of mechanical ventilation among community hospitals.
abstract: We explored intensive care units' mean ventilator-days per patient as a possible objective alternative to ventilator-associated pneumonia rates for assessing quality of care for ventilated patients. Mean ventilator-days per patient varied 4-fold within a network of community hospitals despite adjusting for multiple patient and hospital factors. Further assessment of this metric is warranted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA. mklompas@partners.org
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Klompas
authors.forename: Ken P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Kleinman
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karcz
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D019985:Benchmarking / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000592:standards*; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008404:Massachusetts; D008875:Middle Aged; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012121:Respiration, Artificial / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013997:Time Factors