NBC News (7/11, Kelman) reports, “Hospital patients not getting their teeth brushed, or not brushing their teeth themselves, is believed to be a leading cause of hundreds of thousands of cases of pneumonia a year in patients who have not been put on a ventilator.” Pneumonia is one of “the most common infections that occur in health care facilities, and a majority of cases are non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia, or NVHAP, which kills up to 30% of those infected.” Many NVHAP cases “could be avoided if hospital staffers more dutifully brushed the teeth of bedridden patients, according to a growing body of peer-reviewed research papers.” For instance, “in California, a study at 21 Kaiser Permanente hospitals used a reprioritization of oral care and getting patients out of bed to reduce rates of hospital-acquired pneumonia by around 70%.” In Sacramento, at Sutter Medical Center, research showed “better oral care reduced NVHAP cases by a yearly average of 35%.”
