In the United States, 77% of all UTIs and 79% of all community acquired pneumonias (CAP) are treated inappropriately in the hospital setting, according to an expert panel convened by the Pew Charitable Trust in 2018 to evaluate antibiotic use in hospitals. The panel’s findings, which were published in a March 18, 2021, report, revealed that fluoroquinolones were used inappropriately 47% of the time, and vancomycin was used inappropriately 27% of the time.

As health care providers know, overuse of antibiotics is associated with a host of problems—from intestinal infections and other adverse effects to the development of resistant strains of bacteria. However, “delayed prescribing” promises to temper this trend.