Improving the quality of the intensive care follow-up of ventilated patients during a national registration program.

•Efforts to improve physician and staff education, and checklist implementation resulted in an increase in compliance for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) bundle, a local reflection on specific practices like oral care and sedation protocols and in a decrease in VAP ratio.•This study confirms the applicability of best practice guidelines and suggests a benefit to the use of checklists proposed by the Health Organization.•We utilize a practical approach for examining the success of these changes.