Definition
Healthcare-associated pneumonia can be defined as pneumonia in a patient with at least one of the following risk factors:
- hospitalization in an acute care hospital for two or more days in the last 90 days;
- residence in a nursing home or long-term care facility in the last 30 days
- receiving outpatient intravenous therapy (like antibiotics or chemotherapy) within the past 30 days
- receiving home wound care within the past 30 days
- attending a hospital clinic or dialysis center in the last 30 days
- having a family member with known multi-drug resistant pathogens
Although patients with HCAP may have more severe disease than those with classic CAP, disease severity does not determine if a patient has HCAP or not; the label HCAP is merely an indicator of risk factors for multi-drug resistant bacteria.
A recent study defined HCAP as admittance to a hospital or underwent surgery in the past 180 days, based on the observation that colonization with hospital-acquired bacteria can occur for extended periods.
Read more about this topic: Healthcare-associated Pneumonia
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