pneumonia in the elderly

Pneumonia in Elderly Patients
Janet KuhaMidwestern State University
Pneumonia is an inflammation of the lung parenchyma particularly the alveoli (Koh, 2015). My research ought to find out the reasons why the elderly are more prone to pneumonia. The reasons include co-morbid conditions-heart diseases, inability to strongly cough, contagious illness-common cold and infectious settings-nursing homes (Komiya, Ishii, Kadota, 2015). The common types of infectious organisms are viruses or bacteria. The research question of my paper: Why are the elderly more susceptible to acquiring pneumonia in the healthcare setting and what modalities can be used to lower the mortality rate and quicken their recovery time?
In addition, the outline of the paper includes a discussion of the clinical characteristics of pneumonia in elderly patients. The sign and symptoms of pneumonia among geriatrics include; a productive cough, bloody sputum, fever and chills, chest pain, weakness, confusion as well as shortness of breath (Ebihara et al. 2015). The therapeutic interventions that can be used to lower the mortality rate and lead to a speedier recovery time include appropriate antibiotics or antiviral medication (Momosaki et al. 2015). The recovery time can be made speedier by hydration of the patient and consumption of healthy food. Elderly patients with pneumonia should be given antibiotics in time if the cause is bacteria. Other medications which lower mortality rate include antipyretics (Falco…