A line list of patients with positive sputum cultures is used to monitor which type of infection?

• A. Ventilator-associated pneumonia
• B. Non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia
• C. Catheter-associated urinary tract infection
• D. Bloodstream infection

Answer: (B)

A line list uses a simple, consistent criterion to flag cases and track trends across a hospital. When we look at pneumonia that arises in patients who are not on a ventilator, a positive sputum culture is a practical indicator you can consistently capture for many patients. This makes the line list approach well-suited for monitoring non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia, because it reflects actual infection events in the non-ventilated population and can help detect increases or outbreaks.

Ventilator-associated pneumonia, by contrast, relies on data tied to the patient’s ventilation status, timing relative to intubation, and specific clinical and radiographic criteria. A line list based solely on positive sputum cultures would not reliably distinguish VAP from other factors in ventilated patients and could misclassify cases. Therefore, tracking non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia with a sputum-culture line list aligns best with how this infection is defined and monitored.