Why this study is important?
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are acquired as a direct or indirect result of healthcare. Infections associated with healthcare are not inevitable, and prevention programmes have been successful at reducing the incidence of some HAIs. In Australia, we have estimated 160,000 patients contract a HAI annually. – one ten patient today have an infection acquired in hospital. Non-ventilator hospital associated pneumonia (NV-HAP) is the most common type of HAI, accounting for approximately one quarter of these infections, with an estimated 40,000 patients affected each year in Australian public hospitals alone. NV-HAP is associated with increased length of stay in hospital, increased morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. Approximately 19% of patients with NV-HAP require transfer into an intensive care unit (ICU), with mortality reported at 18%. Patients with NV-HAP are eight times more likely to die in hospital than similar patients without HAP.
About the study
Our study will:
- Evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an intervention that improves oral care in hospitalised patients
- Develop educational and digital resources and evaluate these as part of the trial
- Estimate excess length of stay in hospital associated with NV-HAP
- Describe the patient’s experience of a having a NV-HAP
- Understand the clinician’s experience of implementing the intervention
- Assess the impact of NV-HAP on quality of life
The study phases
Our study consists of three phases, summarised below.
Phase 1
In this phase we will:
- conduct focus groups and surveys with clinicians to understand current practice, knowledge, barriers/enables and beliefs about pneumonia prevention.
- co-design educational and digital resources based on outcomes from the previous point
Phase 2
In this phase we will:
- conduct multi-centre RCT to evaluate the impact of increasing the quality and frequency of oral care on the incidence of pneumonia in hospitalised patients
- evaluate educational and digital resources
- evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the intervention
- estimate excess attributable length of stay in hospital associated with HAP
- describe the patient experience of having HAP and the impact on quality of life
Phase 3
In this phase we will:
- redesign resources based on feedback from Phase 2
- make resources freely available
Where is the study up to?
Subscribe to receive more updates on this study (below) and also check out the study updates and progress page for the latest.
Right now, Phase 2 – has just been completed. We anticipate results from Phase 2 being available shortly.
We are also currently evaluating the resources we used and will update these during the second half of 2026. All our resources will then be made available open-source on this website, in the resources section.
Keep up to date
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The HAPPEN study 