Any Pneumonia Treatments out there Pre-Hospital?

[ShotMedic]

Heyy wondering if there was any Pre-Hospital Treatments out there for Pneumonia??? Ive been getting a ton of elderly patients with almost choking amounts of flem and it always seems to be justt of of reach of suction or the patient can not tolerate it. Wondering if any of you salty dogs out there had tricks of the trade to make the patient more comfortable untill we can bring them to the ER and get them the Big guns.

 

[18G]

hmmm... not really for the issue your having.

Just supportive care and address any oxygenation / ventilatory issues mainly with O2, bronchodilators, and CPAP if severe. If febrile give Tylenol if your system permits and treat any dehydration and nausea.

Hydrating the patient may loosen up the mucous some and enable the patient to clear it more easily.

 

[silver]

Patient education on preventative care and identifying the early warning signs

(Not that I am a good source of ALS treatment information though)

 

[ShotMedic]

hydrating is definitely something i have considered, but its a physician variation out here for fluid if the BP is greater than 90 but i guess theres always a "fast" TKO... Thanks for the speedy replies!!

 

[medicstudent101]

As mentioned above, CPAP is a good route to go for acute pneumonia doubled with bronchodilators. This may wrap itself into a different discussion but lasix were taken out of our protocols for obvious reasons. Medics were slamming every acute pneumonia pt with some lasix due to their wrong working diagnosis. Given, sometimes it's difficult to differentiate acute pneumonia vs CHF. The big two I personally look for is their past, recent, hospital stays for said pneumonia(or other similar diseases that could later present with same s/s). Secondly, if they're febrile or not. I know it's late in the game to post this but figured I'd throw my $0.02 in there.

 

[ShotMedic]

and great 0.02$ it is!

 

[MrBrown]

If you draw blood (as Brown knows some places do), save some tubes so it can be cultured

 

[socalmedic]

hydrating is definitely something i have considered, but its a physician variation out here for fluid if the BP is greater than 90 but i guess theres always a "fast" TKO...

off topic but this is the number one reason i left california. the general distrust, of paramedics.

on topic. there is not much we can do for that. maby try some nebulized saline to loosen some of the gunk.