“What care should we take when treating a patient suffering from pneumonia?”
My father is suffering from pneumonia and has been admitted in the hospital. What care should we take when meeting him?
2 Answers
It's very important to wash your hands with soap and water before going to the hospital use a hand sanitizer when you enter the room and use a hand sanitizer when you leave the room. If you have a cough or fever or have been exposed to the flu or other respiratory illnesses, ask for a mask from the nurses and wear it when you're in the patient's room. If you have fever, flu-like symptoms or other respiratory illness, you should not visit. If you are on steroids, are taking chemotherapy, or have compromise to your immune system, you should not visit. Children and infants should not visit.
It depends on the type of pneumonia, but typically washing your hands is the best thing you can do to prevent any type of infection. If your father has airborne or droplet precautions you should consider wearing a facemark, but this is usually related to viral pneumonia. I'm around patients with pneumonia all the time and have never had a problem.
Jack Stephens, MD
Jack Stephens, MD
