Primary Care Treatment for UTI Could Save $2 Billion

I bring this article up because this exact topic just came up in our office on Friday and also because I find the amount of money that could be saved to be mind blowing.  Patients go to the ER for this kind of thing I believe mostly because of lack of access to care.  We had a patient who called in on Friday who wanted to know if we could call her in antibiotics because she thought she had a UTI.  She was told that she had to make an appointment to be seen.  It turns out that in an adult woman studies have shown that having certain symptoms is more sensitive and specific for UTI than a urine dipstick, so generally speaking there is no need to see the patient.  I think in most instances just calling in the antibiotic is perfectly fine.  It bypasses hurdles to getting adequate treatment and possible saves us $2 billion or more.  That is an incredible amount of money.