The fact that obesity is a significant risk factor for severe influenza-related complications is often ignored or overlooked.

Doxycycline (and not azithromycin) should be your first choice for Lyme disease and other bacterial tick-borne infections.

If your patient with suspected influenza is at high risk due to age or comorbidities, start treatment with oseltamivir immediately.

Amoxicillin-clavulanate and piperacillin-tazobactam already cover anaerobes. Adding metronidazole is unnecessary and increases adverse effects.

Always order two sets of blood cultures before starting broad empiric therapy with IV antibiotics.

What happens if you don’t prescribe antibiotics for strep throat? Will your patient get rheumatic fever or another terrible complication?

Suspected bacterial sinusitis is a common reason (or excuse) for prescribing antibiotics to a patient who has had upper respiratory symptoms for more than a few days.

Leukocytes or bacteriuria in a urine sample are often misinterpreted as confirmation of a UTI, when in fact the correct diagnosis is something completely different.

Patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria often receive unnecessary antibiotics.

In most countries, ciprofloxacin is no longer a good option for empirical treatment of urinary tract infections (UTIs).

Once vancomycin is started empirically, clinicians are often reluctant to discontinue it, even when there’s no evidence of MRSA.

Not every patient needs MRSA coverage, and vancomycin carries a significant risk of nephrotoxicity.