An Assessment on Contingency of Nosocomial Pneumonia in a Tertiary Care Hospital – Kerala

Nosocomial Infections (NIs) are the infections acquired in hospital by a patient who was admitted for a reason other than that infection. It comprise one of the leading causes of preventable injuries and deaths in hospitals, affecting 5% to 10% of hospitalized patients in worldwide and contributing to increased morbidity, mortality, length of stay and cost. A cross-sectional, retrospective study was carried out at a tertiary care hospital, Kerala for period of one year (August 2016 – September 2017) with the aim of assessing the contingency and specific risk factors of nosocomial pneumonia in a tertiary care super specialty hospital. Out of 988 patients selected 140 (14.17%) developed NIs and the prevalence of nosocomial pneumonia was found to be 12.85%. Out of 140 NIs, 134 were bacterial (95.72%) and 6 were fungal infections (4.28%). When analyzing the nosocomial infection events developed by bacterial species 107 (79.85%) were developed because of gram negative species and the remaining 27 that is (19.28) were due to gram negative species. Pseudomonas species was the most common pathogen identified, responsible for nosocomial pneumonia (55.55%). In our study the major specific risk factor for nosocomial pneumonia was found to be mechanical ventilation for more than three days (77.77%). An age of more than sixty is also can be considered as a risk factor for development of the condition. From this study it can be summarized that hospitalized patients have a possibility of being harmed by Nis. It was found that invasive devises used in patient care was the major risk factor for infections which must be accounted. As Nis may lead to increased health care cost, antibiotic resistance, unnecessary patient sufferings, each hospital should adopt methods like special geriatric care, framing infection control department, and antibiotic stewardship programs to manage nosocomial infections. Early recognition, restricted and short term use of invasive devices can contribute significantly towards decreasing the incidence of NIs.