Hospital acquired pneumonia in an Internal Medicine department

Abstract

In the last few years, hospital-acquired infections have been reported by health care workers and the general population, through
the media. Pneumonia is the second most frequent nosocomial
infection being associated with prolonged hospitalization, increase
on human resources and financial needs and higher intra-hospital morbidity and mortality.
Aware of such aspects, the authors carried out a retrospective
review of all cases of nosocomial pneumonia that were admitted
or evolved during an admission for any other cause, to an Internal
Medicine Department between the 1st January 2008 and 30th
June 2009. In this review they point out the demographic patterns of the population, the pre-existence of co-morbidities, the
previous use of antibiotics, the pneumonia clinical presentation,
the cultures collected, which microbiological agents are more
frequently founded, the therapeutic approach, how many days
they were at the hospital and finally, the outcome.
The authors intend to make descriptive critical and retrospective
analyses of these cases, in order to find out the bacterial flora
profile in the hospital and which aspects can be improved in
delivering daily clinical care.