James Massie, an Army veteran and a patient at the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem, Virginia, gets his teeth brushed by nursing assistant Teresa Quarles. The Salem VA reprioritized oral care to combat non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia in 2016, and the program has since expanded across the Veterans Health Administration and is often cited as a model for all hospitals. (ROSAIRE BUSHEY/KHN/TNS)
By Brett Kelman Kaiser Health News Four years ago, when Karen Giuliano went to a Boston hospital for hip-replacement surgery, she was given a pale-pink…
