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Why Urgent Care Is Ground Zero for Antibiotic Stewardship and How FebriDx Helps

Lumos Diagnostics — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 15:33:15 GMT

Urgent care has become one of the highest-volume, highest-pressure settings in outpatient medicine — and it shows in the prescribing data.

Antibiotics are prescribed in roughly 39% of urgent care visits, the highest rate of any outpatient setting, ahead of retail clinics, emergency departments, and traditional medical offices.¹ For acute respiratory infections specifically, urgent care has the highest proportion of visits resulting in an antibiotic across outpatient care.²

None of this is a knock on urgent care providers. It's a reflection of the environment they work in. Patients walk in unscheduled, often without an existing relationship to the clinic, expecting a same-visit resolution. There's no time built in for watchful waiting, and many centers don't have a lab on site to confirm what's driving the symptoms. When the clinical picture is ambiguous — sore throat, fever, congestion, cough — and the patient is sitting across the desk waiting for an answer, a prescription can feel like the safer call.

One health system's internal analysis found that antibiotics were prescribed in 30% of all urgent and quick-care visits over a five-year period, with one out of every two of those prescriptions written for a respiratory illness.³ The same analysis estimated the optimal prescribing rate for respiratory diagnoses should sit closer to 28% — roughly 25% lower than the observed average of 37.9%.³ That gap represents thousands of preventable prescriptions, and preventable exposure to antimicrobial resistance, adverse drug events, and avoidable cost.

FebriDx® is built for exactly this kind of environment.

It's a rapid point-of-care test that uses a fingerstick blood sample to help differentiate bacterial infection from non-bacterial illness, with results available after 10 minutes — inside the same visit, without a lab send-out. As of March 2026, FebriDx is FDA CLIA-waived, meaning it can be run in outpatient point-of-care settings like urgent care without the infrastructure requirements of a moderate- or high-complexity lab.⁴

Its 99% Negative Predictive Value for ruling out bacterial infection gives providers something concrete to anchor the conversation — turning "I don't think you need antibiotics" from a judgment call into an objective result the patient can see for themselves.

The Reality of Practicing on the Front Lines

The momentum behind this approach is already visible. WellStreet Urgent Care recently expanded FebriDx into 44 of its roughly 163 locations across Georgia and Michigan following a successful pilot, with a goal of full network rollout within 6 to 12 months.⁵ Across the country, FebriDx has now surpassed 100 healthcare locations in 18 states, and more than 90% of submitted reimbursement claims have been paid to date, with average payments exceeding the Medicare benchmark of $41.38 per test.⁶

As urgent care continues to absorb a growing share of the country's acute respiratory visits, the centers that pair speed with objective diagnostic data are the ones best positioned to deliver both faster care and better stewardship — without choosing between the two.

See How FebriDx Fits Your Urgent Care Workflow

If you're evaluating ways to support faster, more confident respiratory care decisions across your urgent care network, we'd love to talk.

FebriDx® at the Frontline: An Antibiotic Stewardship Tool for Nurse Practitioners

Lumos Diagnostics — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 17:28:32 GMT

The role of nurse practitioners in outpatient healthcare has changed dramatically over the past decade.

As healthcare systems work to address physician shortages, improve access to care, and meet growing patient demand, nurse practitioners are increasingly serving as frontline healthcare providers across primary care, urgent care, retail health, student health, and rural healthcare settings. In many communities—particularly those with limited physician access—nurse practitioners are often the first and sometimes only provider available to evaluate patients, make treatment decisions, and guide appropriate care.

At the same time, antibiotic stewardship has become an increasing priority across healthcare. Providers are expected to make timely clinical decisions while balancing patient expectations, operational demands, and the need to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use.

These trends are converging in ways that are reshaping outpatient care.

Between 2011 and 2022, physician antibiotic prescribing rates declined by 32%, while prescribing rates among advanced practice providers increased by 157%.¹ This shift reflects a broader change in healthcare delivery: nurse practitioners are caring for more patients, managing increasingly complex clinical presentations, and practicing in some of the most operationally demanding healthcare environments in the country.

Nurse Practitioners Are Reshaping Outpatient Prescribing

As the NP workforce continues to expand, so does its influence on prescribing patterns.

During acute respiratory infection visits, advanced practice providers prescribed antibiotics in 61% of encounters compared with 54% for physicians.² Another analysis found that advanced practice clinicians were associated with 30% higher odds of prescribing antibiotics during respiratory visits.³

Importantly, approximately 45% of respiratory visits involved diagnoses where antibiotics are rarely indicated.³

These statistics are not a reflection of provider capability. Rather, they highlight the reality that nurse practitioners are increasingly practicing on the front lines of respiratory care, where decisions must be made quickly and often with limited diagnostic information available during the patient encounter.

The same trend is being observed internationally. Between 2014 and 2021, antibiotic prescriptions written by nurse prescribers increased by 146%, prompting researchers to call for greater inclusion of nurses in antimicrobial stewardship initiatives.⁵

The message is clear: nurse practitioners are no longer a peripheral audience in antibiotic stewardship discussions. They are central to them.

The Reality of Practicing on the Front Lines

Most nurse practitioners do not need additional education on antibiotic stewardship.

They understand the risks associated with unnecessary antibiotic use, including antimicrobial resistance, adverse drug events, avoidable healthcare costs, and the long-term impact on public health.

The challenge is putting stewardship principles into practice in real-world clinical environments.

Many nurse practitioners practice in urgent care centers, primary care offices, retail clinics, student health centers, and rural healthcare settings where patient volumes are high and treatment decisions must be made quickly. Unlike hospital environments, many outpatient settings do not have immediate access to laboratory diagnostics, infectious disease specialists, or antimicrobial stewardship teams.

At the same time, patients expect answers during the initial visit.

Providers are expected to evaluate the patient, determine an appropriate treatment plan, educate the patient, document the encounter, and maintain patient flow—all within a limited amount of time.

The challenge isn't understanding stewardship. The challenge is making confident respiratory care decisions when additional diagnostic information may not be immediately available.

This challenge becomes even more apparent in the settings where nurse practitioners are increasingly practicing. National analyses have identified urgent care and telehealth as two of the highest-volume settings for low-value antibiotic prescribing.⁴ These environments are often characterized by high patient throughput, limited diagnostic resources, and pressure to make treatment decisions quickly.

Geography further complicates the issue. Antibiotic prescribing rates remain highest in rural communities and throughout much of the Southeastern United States. In seven Southeastern states, nurse practitioner prescribing rates increased from 163 prescriptions per 1,000 population in 2011 to 393 prescriptions per 1,000 population in 2022.¹ These are often the same regions where nurse practitioners play a critical role in maintaining access to care.

From Pilot Program to 44 Locations

Healthcare organizations are increasingly looking for solutions that support respiratory care decision-making without creating additional operational complexity.

One example is WellStreet Urgent Care, which recently expanded the implementation of FebriDx® to 44 locations following its initial evaluation of the test.

That expansion reflects a broader trend occurring across outpatient healthcare. Organizations are looking for practical tools that can support clinical decision-making while fitting naturally into existing workflows.

This is particularly important in high-volume outpatient settings where providers need actionable information during the patient encounter—not hours or days later.

Today, FebriDx is being utilized across more than 100 clinical locations in 18 states, including urgent care, primary care, concierge medicine, and collegiate health settings. As adoption continues to grow, healthcare organizations are increasingly recognizing the value of obtaining objective information during the initial visit.

Built for the Way Nurse Practitioners Practice

Nurse practitioners are often asked to make respiratory treatment decisions before laboratory results are available.

When symptoms overlap and patients are seeking immediate answers, having objective information available during the visit can be invaluable.

FebriDx is a rapid point-of-care test that uses a fingerstick blood sample to aid in the differentiation between bacterial infection and non-bacterial etiology during the initial visit.

Results are available after 10 minutes, allowing providers to incorporate objective information into clinical decision-making while the patient is still present.

Designed specifically for outpatient settings, FebriDx is:

CLIA-waived
Instrument-free
Easy to incorporate into existing workflows
Performed using approximately 5μL of fingerstick blood
Capable of delivering results during the patient encounter

In addition, FebriDx has demonstrated a 99% negative predictive value for ruling out bacterial infection, providing clinicians with additional information to support respiratory care decisions and antibiotic stewardship efforts.

For nurse practitioners, the value extends beyond the test result itself. Objective information can support patient conversations, reinforce treatment recommendations, and help providers make more informed decisions without disrupting clinic operations.

As nurse practitioners continue to play an increasingly important role in respiratory care delivery, access to actionable information during the initial visit may represent one of the greatest opportunities to improve both clinical confidence and workflow efficiency.

Why FebriDx® is the Antibiotic Stewardship Diagnostic Solution for Collegiate Health

Lumos Diagnostics — Mon, 25 May 2026 16:08:45 GMT

Why College Campuses Are the Next Frontier in Antibiotic Stewardship

When people think about antimicrobial stewardship, they often picture hospitals, emergency departments, or large health systems. But one of the most overlooked environments for antibiotic decision-making may actually be college and university health clinics.

Each year, approximately 1 in 2 college students will visit student health for cold and flurelated symptoms.¹ At the same time, nearly 70% of students consider campus health clinics their primary source of care, placing these clinics on the front lines of respiratory infection management and antibiotic prescribing.¹

That influence matters because antibiotic expectations and misuse patterns are already deeply ingrained within this student health population. Globally, the prevalence of self-medication across drugs in students worldwide is 70.1%. That's not a niche behavior — it reflects how normalized dangerous drug misuse like antibiotics has become in this age group.

Young adults ages 20–34 are also 2x more likely than older adults to visit the emergency department for antibiotic-related adverse events.⁴

In a population where respiratory illnesses are common, every opportunity to support appropriate antibiotic use matters.

The Diagnostic Problem Isn't Simple Either

None of this falls squarely on the patient. Part of the challenge is that respiratory infections are genuinely difficult to sort out based on symptoms alone. Bacterial and non-bacterial infections frequently present with overlapping signs — sore throat, fever, congestion, cough — and providers working through a packed clinic schedule have limited time to dig deeper. When clinical findings are ambiguous, prescribing antibiotics can feel like the safer choice, even when the evidence doesn't support it.

The CDC estimates that up to 50% of antibiotics prescribed prescribed for acute respiratory infections (ARIs) in outpatient settings are uncessary ² At scale, across thousands of campus health visits each year, that adds up to a significant share of preventable prescriptions — and preventable exposure to antimicrobial resistance.

Antimicrobial resistance is not an abstract threat. The CDC attributes approximately 2.8 million drug-resistant infections and 35,000 deaths annually in the United States to it.³ Every unnecessary prescription, in every setting, is a small contribution to that burden.

Where FebriDx Fits in collegiate health settings

FebriDx is a rapid point-of-care test that uses a fingerstick blood sample to help differentiate bacterial infection from non-bacterial illness. Results are available after 10 minutes from a fingerstick blood sample. The test is instrument-free, portable, and now CLIA-waived by the FDA — meaning it can be used in outpatient settings, including student health centers, without the infrastructure requirements of a traditional lab.

Its 99% Negative Predictive Value (NPV) for ruling out bacterial infection gives providers something concrete to anchor a clinical conversation. That matters particularly in a college health setting, where the patient sitting across from you may be convinced they need antibiotics and may be skeptical of a provider who says otherwise.

A visual, objective result changes that dynamic. Instead of a provider explaining why antibiotics probably won't help — which can feel like opinion to a frustrated student — the test result becomes part of the conversation. Recent studies point to evidence that brief educational interventions during student health visits can produce meaningful improvements in antibiotic knowledge, and that students who don't receive a prescription are more receptive to education when they understand the reasoning behind the decision.¹

FebriDx gives providers a tool to support both goals at once: a more confident clinical decision and a more productive patient conversation.

Institutions including Texas A&M University have already incorporated FebriDx into their student health approach, recognizing that stewardship and patient education aren't separate programs — they're the same conversation.

The Opportunity Ahead

Collegiate health has always been underestimated as a site of public health impact. But when you consider the sheer volume of students moving through campus clinics each year, the behaviors they're developing during those visits, and the long arc of influence that runs from a college health encounter forward into adulthood, the case becomes clear.

This is a population worth investing in. And the tools to do it well — rapid diagnostics, evidence-based education, shared decision-making — are already available.
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High-Volume Respiratory Season is the Super Bowl of Outpatient Care

Lumos Diagnostics — Sat, 24 Jan 2026 19:51:00 GMT

For outpatient care teams, respiratory season represents the most demanding stretch of the year. Patient volumes surge, visit times shrink, and clinicians are expected to deliver clear answers and confident treatment decisions—often with limited diagnostic clarity and intense time pressure.

It's why many clinicians refer to this period as outpatient care’s playoffs and Super Bowl season. Performance during this time depends on preparation well before volumes peak—and on having the right diagnostic support available during the visit itself.

During a recent webinar, Annie Bell, Vice President of Medical Affairs at Lumos Diagnostics, and Brian Bobb, Senior Medical Officer at WellStreet Urgent Care, discussed how diagnostic uncertainty in outpatient care contributes to unnecessary antibiotic use—particularly during respiratory season, when more than 50% of antibiotics prescribed for acute respiratory infections are unnecessary.

Dr. Bobb then shared how WellStreet approaches antibiotic stewardship in real-world outpatient settings, including how FebriDx® is used to support confident treatment decisions during the patient visit without slowing care.

What High-Volume Respiratory Season Really Looks Like

At the heart of the challenge is volume. During peak respiratory season, clinicians may see 40–60 respiratory patients per day, sometimes more across multi-clinician centers. Visits are short—often 15 minutes or less—yet expectations for clarity, reassurance, and efficiency remain high.

🔍 Call-Out: From the Front Lines

“During this season, we’re flexing up. We’re seeing 40 to 60 respiratory patients per clinician per day. You’ve got 15 minutes—sometimes less—with the patient, and you’re spending over half that time uncertain about what the diagnosis is and trying to figure out your next step.”
— Dr. Brian Bobb, Senior Medical Officer, WellStreet Urgent Care

That uncertainty doesn’t just affect clinicians—it impacts flow, increases callbacks, and can drive unnecessary antibiotic prescribing when answers aren’t available quickly enough.

Preparation Starts Before the Surge

WellStreet’s approach to respiratory season starts early. Preparation isn’t reactive—it’s intentional.

Their teams focus on:

Robust education around antibiotic stewardship for both clinicians and patients
Standardized diagnostic and clinical pathways across clinics to maintain consistency
Systematic workflows that support efficient care during high-volume periods

By standardizing pathways, WellStreet Urgent Care not only manages patient flow more effectively but also generates meaningful data. After respiratory season, that data—along with clinician feedback, patient experience insights, and quality metrics—is reviewed to evaluate what worked, where challenges occurred, and how processes can be improved.

Evaluating Diagnostic Support During the Visit

As part of this broader stewardship strategy, WellStreet evaluated what diagnostic tools were available—particularly those that could support decision-making early in the patient encounter, when timing matters most.

That evaluation led them to assess where FebriDx® could fit into their outpatient workflows.

The question wasn’t simply whether the test worked—but how it could be implemented without disrupting care.

Understanding clinician pain points ahead of time and having open discussions about workflow helped smooth concerns about introducing a new diagnostic tool.

A Triage-First Workflow for Real-World Conditions

While awaiting CLIA waiver, WellStreet piloted FebriDx® in one of their busiest clinics.

To properly evaluate its impact, they built a workflow that started at triage:

The patient is checked in
Symptoms are assessed
The test is initiated early, while the clinician gathers clinical context

With results available during the visit, clinicians could determine whether they already had the information they needed—or whether additional testing was warranted, such as rapid antigen testing (strep, COVID, flu), imaging, or more advanced diagnostics.

The key advantage was timing: insight was available early enough to guide next steps without delaying care.

“Adoption Was Not a Question”

What became clear quickly was that clinicians recognized the value of having diagnostic information available during the visit.

Adoption wasn’t driven by mandate—it was driven by clinical utility.

“Adoption was not a question. Clinicians quickly saw the value of having that bacterial vs. non-bacterial determination early in the visit.”

Having that early insight helped differentiate whether further testing was necessary and supported more confident conversations with patients—without adding friction to already tight workflows.

Reminder: FebriDx® is a rapid, point-of-care immunoassay that aids in differentiating bacterial from non-bacterial etiology, delivering results after 10 minutes from a finger-stick blood sample.

When the Game Is On, Preparation Shows

Respiratory season will always be demanding. But organizations that treat it like a Super Bowl—preparing ahead of time, standardizing workflows, and ensuring diagnostic support is available when it matters—are better positioned to perform under pressure.

For outpatient and urgent care teams, diagnostic preparation isn’t about doing more. It’s about having the right information at the right time to support confident, appropriate care during the busiest season of the year.

Closing the Diagnostic Gap in Urgent Care: Stewardship This Cold & Flu Season

Lumos Diagnostics — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 15:37:50 GMT

Every cold and flu season, clinicians face the same challenge: crowded schedules, overlapping respiratory symptoms, and pressure to provide fast answers during the initial visit. Diagnostic clarity, however, is often unavailable at the point of care when treatment decisions must be made.

Up to 50% of antibiotic prescriptions for acute respiratory infections (ARIs) in outpatient settings are unnecessary, highlighting a growing risk to patient safety and antibiotic stewardship efforts.¹ Without timely access to diagnostic tools that support real-time decision-making, clinicians are often forced to rely on symptoms alone when determining whether antibiotics are appropriate.

Outpatient and ambulatory care settings account for the majority of antibiotic prescribing in the United States, meaning even modest improvements in diagnostic accuracy at the point of care can have a meaningful impact on stewardship efforts.² When diagnostic information is delayed or unavailable during the visit, uncertainty persists—raising the likelihood of unnecessary prescribing and downstream harm.

Why Diagnostic Clarity Matters for Stewardship

Acute respiratory infections frequently present with nonspecific symptoms such as cough, fever, sore throat, and congestion. During early presentation, these symptoms do not reliably differentiate bacterial from non-bacterial illness. Without diagnostic clarity, both over- and under-prescribing become more likely.

While patient education remains an important component of stewardship, education alone cannot replace objective diagnostic data. Clinicians need tools that support confident, evidence-based decisions during the initial visit, when antibiotic prescribing decisions are made.

Save Your Spot

Systemic Factors Driving Diagnostic Uncertainty

Several systemic challenges contribute to diagnostic uncertainty in urgent care and other outpatient settings:

Overlapping respiratory symptoms make it difficult to reliably differentiate bacterial from non-bacterial infections based on clinical assessment alone.³
Bacterial culture testing requires 24–72 hours to return results, leaving clinicians without actionable diagnostic information during the visit when treatment decisions are made.⁴
High patient volume in urgent care settings further constrains diagnostic evaluation. Many centers see more than 50 patients per day, with approximately one in four exceeding 60 daily visits.⁵
Limited availability of rapid point-of-care diagnostics persists across outpatient settings, with fewer than 15% of respiratory infection evaluations supported by point-of-care testing.⁶
Patient expectations for antibiotics remain a contributing pressure during respiratory season, even when diagnostic certainty is low.⁷

Together, these constraints create a diagnostic gap at the point of care—precisely when stewardship interventions are most effective.

How FebriDx® Supports Better Antibiotic Decisions

FebriDx® is a rapid point-of-care test that delivers results after 10 minutes from a fingerstick blood sample, supporting antibiotic decision-making during the initial visit, when treatment decisions are made.

By assessing the body’s host immune response rather than detecting a single pathogen, FebriDx helps clinicians differentiate bacterial infection from non-bacterial illness when respiratory symptoms overlap. This enables evidence-based decision-making in real time and reduces reliance on symptoms alone.

With a 99% negative predictive value (NPV) for ruling out bacterial infection, FebriDx provides objective data to support appropriate antibiotic stewardship while maintaining clinical confidence.¹⁰

The availability of a visual diagnostic result can also support clearer, evidence-based patient conversations during the visit, reinforcing appropriate antibiotic decision-making without delaying care.

A Practical Tool for High-Volume Outpatient Settings

FebriDx (0042U) is designed for real-world outpatient workflows:

Reliable differentiation of bacterial and non-bacterial etiology
99% Negative Predictive Value to Rule out Bacterial Infections
Results after 10 minutes from a fingerstick blood sample
A visual tool to help providers with patient education during
The initial visit.
Shelf-stable for 18 months; No hazardous waste disposal required

Strengthening Stewardship This Season

To make the greatest impact this cold and flu season, healthcare organizations can focus on one key strategy:

Expanding access to rapid, point-of-care diagnostics that provide actionable clarity during the visit—when antibiotic decisions are made.

Blog

Why Urgent Care Is Ground Zero for Antibiotic Stewardship and How FebriDx Helps

FebriDx® is built for exactly this kind of environment.

The Reality of Practicing on the Front Lines

See How FebriDx Fits Your Urgent Care Workflow

FebriDx® at the Frontline: An Antibiotic Stewardship Tool for Nurse Practitioners

Nurse Practitioners Are Reshaping Outpatient Prescribing

The Reality of Practicing on the Front Lines

From Pilot Program to 44 Locations

Why FebriDx® is the Antibiotic Stewardship Diagnostic Solution for Collegiate Health

Why College Campuses Are the Next Frontier in Antibiotic Stewardship

The Diagnostic Problem Isn't Simple Either

Where FebriDx Fits in collegiate health settings

The Opportunity Ahead

High-Volume Respiratory Season is the Super Bowl of Outpatient Care

What High-Volume Respiratory Season Really Looks Like

🔍 Call-Out: From the Front Lines

Evaluating Diagnostic Support During the Visit

A Triage-First Workflow for Real-World Conditions

“Adoption Was Not a Question”

When the Game Is On, Preparation Shows

Closing the Diagnostic Gap in Urgent Care: Stewardship This Cold & Flu Season

Why Diagnostic Clarity Matters for Stewardship

Systemic Factors Driving Diagnostic Uncertainty

How FebriDx® Supports Better Antibiotic Decisions

A Practical Tool for High-Volume Outpatient Settings

Strengthening Stewardship This Season

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