Room w/ viral pneumonia

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I have a question regarding pneumonia. If a patient you are caring for has a roommate with contagious (viral)pneumonia is it safe to keep them in a room together?

Im at a facility which is rumored to have many patients that have developed pneumonia in the last week, but staff is keeping it "hush hush" and since most patients have dementia no one says anything. I asked a nurse if the patient next to mine has pneumonia. She replies with an attitude, "I can't tell you that". Which means yes. In regard to my patients safety wouldn't he need his own room while the other has pneumonia? I'm not apart of this company, I am a separate company so I don't really know what's going on. I've taken a HIPPA class, but when it comes to a situation like this I don't know what to do.

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I also want to add this facility I am working at (not my company) is not a quality one. So it is likely many patients are catching this. I've seen bugs everywhere, staff is very rude, they leave patients covered in food/water/urine, very low quality and it breaks my heart so it is likely that the patients do have viral pneumonia and nothing is being done. Way to go for them giving healthcare a good name..

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Typically facilities are expected to follow the CDC isolation recommendations, except for a few specific viruses, viral pneumonia only requires standard precautions, not isolation.

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Specializes in LTC, Memory loss, PDN.

have you contacted your supervisor with your concerns

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Moved to Infectious Disease Nursing forum for further advice.

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