Healthcare-associated Infection in Intensive Care Units: Overall Analysis of Patient Criticality by Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation IV Scoring and Pathogenic Characteristics

OBJECTIVES: To compare the predicted vs observed mortality rate, criticality, and length of stay of the patients with healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in intensive care units (ICUs) of a tertiary health center through acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE) IV scoring. To analyze the drug sensitivity pattern of the isolated pathogen. DESIGN: This is a prospective observational study involving the patients admitted to various ICUs of a tertiary care teaching hospital. Among 1,229 patients who were admitted in the ICUs for a period of 2.5 months (74 days), 767 patients stayed beyond 48 hours. They were monitored and 87 of them who developed HAIs were included in the study. The organisms isolated from the infection site were identified, and the drug resistance pattern was reported as per standard guidelines. The patients were followed up till their discharge, and adequate details pertaining to the study were collected including demographic details and physiological and biochemical parameters to calculate APACHE IV score, length of stay, and prognosis. SETTING: Intensive care units of JSS Hospital, Mysuru, Karnataka, India. SUBJECTS/PATIENTS: All patients who developed HAI in ICUs. INTERVENTIONS: Nil. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The HAI rate observed in this study was 15.7%. Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) was the most common type of infection. Klebsiella and Acinetobacter were the frequently isolated organisms. There was a high prevalence of drug resistance among these pathogens. The ICU mortality in infected patients was 21.83%, roughly twice as that of uninfected patients. The observed length of stay was 11.66 (±8.53) days. CONCLUSION: Healthcare-associated infection was associated with long duration of ICU stay. There was a high prevalence of drug resistance to various antibiotics. Acute physiology and chronic health evaluation IV score was not found to be good scoring system to predict the mortality and length of stay in the patients who had HAI. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Gunasekaran S, Mahadevaiah S. Healthcare-associated Infection in Intensive Care Units: Overall Analysis of Patient Criticality by Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation IV Scoring and Pathogenic Characteristics. Indian J Crit Care Med 2020;24(4):252–257.