The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the important role mechanical ventilators play in the management of severe respiratory illness. A mechanical ventilator is a machine that does the work of breathing for a patient by delivering oxygen into the lungs and helping to remove carbon dioxide. Mechanical ventilators may be used to treat critical illnesses such as acute respiratory failure, sepsis and severe pneumonia or in conditions where a patient can no longer safely breathe independently (e.g., drug overdose). PHC4 examined this important life-saving treatment modality to serve as a baseline for future analyses on hospitalizations involving the novel coronavirus responsible for the infectious respiratory illness seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. This brief includes hospitalizations involving a mechanical ventilator for patients discharged from Pennsylvania general acute care hospitals in fiscal year (FY) 2019: July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019.
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