Empiric treatment of uncomplicated UTI in women: wasting money when more is not better.

CONTEXT: Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) and nitrofurantoin were until recently the two drugs recommended in clinical guidelines in Israel for empiric treatment of uncomplicated urinary tract infection (UTI) in women.

OBJECTIVES

The objective of this study is to evaluate the economic impact of physician non-adherence to these recommendations. DESIGN SETTING AND PATIENTS: Data were derived from the electronic patient records of the Leumit Health Fund. Cases of women aged 18 to 75 with a diagnosis of acute cystitis or UTI that were empirically treated with antibiotics from January 2001 to June 2002 were identified. The final sample comprised 7738 physician-patient encounters. The proportion of cases treated with each individual drug was calculated, and the excess expenditure because of non-adherence to guidelines from the perspective of the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) was evaluated using 5 days of therapy with nitrofurantoin as the reference treatment.

RESULTS

TMP-SMX was the most frequently prescribed drug (25.81%), followed by nitrofurantoin (14.71%) representing a 40.52% rate of adherence to the guidelines. Drugs from the fluoroquinolone family were prescribed in 22.82% of cases. Cost of treatment in approximately 70% of the cases exceeded the expected cost of the guideline therapy.

CONCLUSIONS

Suboptimal adherence to the guidelines resulted in a significant and avoidable waste of the health plan's resources in both drugs and money.