16-07-2025
Pneumonia 101: When to Admit and When to Treat Outpatient
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Pneumonias are very commonly encountered diagnoses and something that we see in many patients, whether it is in the outpatient field, in urgent care, or in a hospital.
We treat these patients generally based off symptoms, whether they're acute, mild, moderate, or chronic, important for us to check out what type of organism is growing within their sputum. This can help guide us in terms of therapies.
We can use different scores, like the pneumonia severity index or the CURB-65, to guide us as to whether a patient needs to be hospitalized or we feel we need to escalate care from oral to [intravenous] antibiotics.
Sometimes these patients require hospitalization in the ICU with mechanical ventilation to give them a chance to recover, their lungs to function better, and to help with the mucus and sputum that they are feeling.
It's important to remember prevention strategies for our patients, as some of our patients are chronically sick and can get worse with pneumonia. Aspiration precautions are very important.
Also, it is important for patients to get vaccinations, such as pneumococcal, [ respiratory syncytial virus], flu, and COVID-19, for which they are indicated. Making sure to counsel our patients on vaccinations can be important and life changing.
