Time plays an important role in medical decision making, as a patient’s disease is a dynamic process that changes over time; medical doctors, therefore, have to deal with the temporal nature of these processes as well. However, it is not clear whether time is equally important in every aspect of medical decision making. This paper explores the role of time in the diagnosis and treatment of ventilator-associated pneumo- nia (VAP) in ICU patients. The aim of this study was to obtain insight into the advantages and limitations of dealing with time explicitly in the context of VAP.