

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
