The Use of Urine Cultures in Improving Diagnosis and Treatment Decisions in Patients with Suspected Urinary Tract Infections

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most frequent reasons that patients seek treatment from a primary care or walk in clinic, with more than 8 million office visits annually in the United States (Waller, 2018). Commonly, a patient will present with symptoms such as dysuria and urinary frequency, prompting a urine dipstick analysis to be performed to determine if a UTI is present. If the patient shows signs of possible infection on the urine dipstick, then an antibiotic is prescribed (Waller, 2018). The problem with this type of diagnosis and treatment of a UTI is that there is no way to tell if that particular bacteria will be susceptible to the antibiotic prescribed. Therefore, there is a risk of increasing antibiotic resistance in that patient as well as not providing correct treatment (Córdoba1, 2018). There is a need to increase the use of urine cultures in the diagnosis and treatment of suspected UTIs to prevent antimicrobial resistance, improve treatment decisions, and improve patient outcomes