Pneumococcus can cause many types of illnesses, including pneumonia, blood infections, ear infections, and meningitis. Pneumococcal disease is an infection caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria, sometimes referred to as pneumococcus.

Get a shot – If you or your loved one is at high risk for pneumococcal disease, get vaccinated before your hospital stay. Take a “sedation vacation” – Family members should ask the healthcare team if their loved one is able to have their sedation medications stopped to see if they will be alert enough to begin the process of removing the breathing tube.ħ. Raise the head of the bed – Ask healthcare providers whether the head of your hospital bed should be elevated at an angle of 30-45 degrees to reduce the chances you will breathe in secretions or have something “go down the wrong pipe.” If a patient is unable to ask about the angle of the bed, a friend or family member should ask on the patient’s behalf.Ħ. Taking deep breaths and moving around as much as you can also help reduce your chances of acquiring pneumonia.ĥ. When healthcare providers urge you to get up and walk around, it’s not just your muscles they want to work. Take a deep breath and get moving! – If you have been given a breathing exercise using an “incentive spirometer” (a device with plastic balls and tubes), do the exercises as often as your healthcare provider asks you to. Protective coverings keep germs from moving from healthcare providers to patients.Ĥ. Wear the right things – Healthcare providers should wear gowns, gloves, masks, or face shields when performing certain tasks like suctioning the patient’s secretions and inserting a breathing tube, and change them after they are soiled with respiratory secretions. If a patient is unable to ask any of these questions, a friend or family member should ask on the patient’s behalf.ģ. Family members or advocates should ask healthcare providers to check on the patient’s ability to breathe on their own every day so that the breathing tube can come out as quickly as possible. If you are having surgery, ask the anesthesiologist if it can be done with a regional or spinal anesthesia. Insertion of a breathing tube and being placed on a ventilator increase the chance of developing pneumonia. To tube or not to tube? – Ask what measures will be put in place to reduce your chances of needing a breathing tube, or to reduce the time you need to have one in place. In fact, healthcare providers should clean their hands before and after touching a patient, before a procedure, after being exposed to a patient’s fluids, and after touching a patient’s surroundings, whether or not the patient has a breathing tube.Ģ. Healthcare providers should clean their hands before and after contact with a patient who has a breathing tube, and before and after contact with any respiratory device that is used on the patient, whether or not gloves are worn. Clean your hands after using the bathroom after sneezing, blowing your nose, or coughing before eating when visiting someone who is sick or whenever your hands are dirty. Keeping your hands clean is the number one way to prevent the spread of infection. Clean your hands – and make sure that your healthcare providers do the same. What steps can I take with my healthcare team to prevent pneumonia when I’m in the hospital?ġ. Certain people are more likely to get sick with pneumonia including adults 65 years of age or older children younger than 5 years of age people who have medical conditions like diabetes, heart disease, or asthma and people who smoke cigarettes.īeing in the hospital can place a patient at a higher risk of developing pneumonia because of procedures that disrupt normal breathing, like needing a “breathing tube” (also known as an endotracheal tube), inactivity, or taking certain medications.

A variety of organisms, including bacteria, viruses and fungi, can cause pneumonia. Access a printer-friendly copy of this alert

Phenomena sickness