If you suffer from pneumonia, the last thing you should consider is neglecting the condition. Although most people recover from it, there is a 30-day mortality rate of 5 to 10 percent of patients who get hospitalized.
Therefore, new treatments for pneumonia are always welcomed. According to KSL.com, researchers from Intermountain Healthcare published a new study showing that a new treatment method works by reducing the mortality rate of pneumonia pacients significantly.
Using ePNa to reduce the pneumonia mortality rate by 38%
ePNa is a real-time electronic decision support system that was used to treat pneumonia patients. It has shown great results, as the mortality rate was reduced by 38%.
ePNa was used across 16 hospitals between December 2017 and June 2019. 67% of the total of 7,000 pneumonia patients who were hospitalized were treated using the method.
Dr. Nathan Dean, the main investigator of the study and also the chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Intermountain Medical Center, stated as quoted by KSL.com:
Treating pneumonia in emergency departments is challenging, especially in community hospitals that don’t see severe pneumonia as often as urban academic medical centers.
Need any more reasons to be aware of the fact that pneumonia is a serious illness? Check out what the American Lung Association has to say:
Pneumonia is more common than you think. It causes more than a million hospitalizations and more than 50,000 deaths each year. Pneumonia is an infection in one or both of your lungs, causing inflammation and fluid build-up. It may cause problems with oxygen exchange.
The usual symptoms of a person dealing with pneumonia are fever, cough, chills, chest pains, rapid breathing, and fatigue. Pretty much anybody can get pneumonia, although some people are at greater risk than others.
