Pneumonia Types That Require Hospitalization

The infection and inflammation of the lungs caused by bacteria or viruses is a condition called pneumonia and it is a common type of pulmonary disease. This condition triggers an overproduction of mucus in the respiratory tract. The symptoms shown by this condition vary greatly depending on many factors like the age of the infected person, the ability to fight the infection of the immune system, the overall health or the causes of the infection. People that have a strong immune system are less likely to encounter pneumonia but people that have certain predisposition to respiratory infections or have an impaired immune system are at higher risk of developing pneumonia and complications caused by this disease. Because of this, we can say that old people are at higher risk of developing pneumonia and complications than other adults.

Nowadays, most cases of pneumonia are hospitalized because without a proper care and close monitoring, the condition may aggravate. There are however, many mild cases that don't require hospitalization, which are treated at home. The milder forms of pneumonia are also not as contagious as the severe forms, so it is possible for them not to infect other people. Because of this, some persons receive treatments to follow at home. Some of the cases, like walking pneumonia, don't even require bed resting, so people can continue with their daily activities while following a prescription.

In the close past, doctors have begun reconsidering the unnecessary hospitalizations of those patients because of the high costs and overcrowding. It has been considered for elderly people to avoid hospitalization in case of pneumonia. It was shown in recent studies that old people who live in nursing homes can receive medical treatment for pneumonia in the nursing home and hospitalization is not required anymore. They already benefit the medical care and surveillance. For those reasons put together, the nursing homes residents are considered not to be in need of hospitalization in the mild and uncomplicated forms of pneumonia.

This process will be benefic for both the patients and doctors. Also, the costs can be reduced with up to 1500 dollars for every patient.

A group of Canadian researchers started a study involving the collaboration of 20 nursing homes, to establish the necessity of hospitalization in case of pneumonia for the nursing homes residents. Half of the nursing homes were asked to follow their own rules for medical care and surveillance and the other half was asked to apply a new set of procedures and guidelines in case of patients with pneumonia. When the two groups were confronted with pneumonia cases, they followed the directions and the usual care group has sent the patients to the hospital while the exponential group kept them inside the nursing center.

The exponential group of nursing homes was asked to offer treatment inside the facilities for the residents suffering from pneumonia with stable conditions. Those residents that presented complications or aggravations were sent to hospital. In the referential group of nursing homes, there were 327 cases of pneumonia while the usual group encountered 353 cases. During the study, 10, respectively 22 percents of the cases of pneumonia required hospitalization. The researchers concluded that the residents of the nursing home from both groups had similar responses to the treatment regardless of the medical regimen. The mild cases of pneumonia can thus be treated inside the nursing home, avoiding the unnecessary hospitalizations.

The medical costs can be greatly reduced by the generalization of the appliance of the guidelines set by the Canadian researchers in the matter of unnecessary hospitalization of the pneumonia cases encountered among the nursing home residents. Each year, 70 millions dollars could be spared in Canada and 800 millions dollars in America if the unnecessary hospitalizations would be avoided.