What GPs Reveal: Qualitative Analysis of UTI Care

The PLOS One study on GP perspectives and interprofessional UTI care found that antibiotic-sparing management depends on more than the GP’s prescribing decision. Patient expectations, trust, workload, practice staff, pharmacy relationships, and communication across the care pathway all shaped treatment decisions.

• Between June 10 and July 17, 2025, the researchers interviewed 15 GPs in Switzerland, with interviews lasting an average of 44 minutes.
• The November 11, 2026 PLOS One report identified six themes covering prescribing thresholds, patient relationships, practical constraints, practice staff, professional autonomy, and pharmacy-based care.
• The participating GPs had a mean age of 46.6 years, 53.3% were female, and their general-practice experience ranged from 5 to 25 years.
• The study found that many GPs intended to use antibiotic-sparing strategies, but workload, limited follow-up access, patient expectations, and uncertainty could lower the threshold for prescribing antibiotics.
• The researchers concluded that clearer roles, appropriate training, and feasible communication structures could support more coordinated antimicrobial stewardship.

The researchers used semi-structured virtual interviews and thematic analysis to examine how Swiss GPs managed uncomplicated UTIs in otherwise healthy, non-pregnant women aged 18 to 64 years. According to the November 11, 2026 PLOS One report, the interviews combined predefined domains with inductive coding, allowing the analysis to capture both expected topics and patterns emerging from participants’ accounts.

The study team conducted 15 interviews after later interviews produced no substantively new content relevant to the research questions, according to the PLOS One methods and results sections. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, coded with deductive and inductive elements, and reviewed by multiple researchers using an iteratively refined codebook.

The resulting six themes show why qualitative analysis is valuable for healthcare implementation research. The study did not treat antibiotic prescribing as an isolated clinical action; the researchers analyzed how decisions were negotiated among patients, GPs, practice staff, and community pharmacies.

One GP described the gap between intention and implementation by saying, "By now, the antibiotic-sparing approach is actually the approach of choice in our practice... However, it is still often the case that aspiration and reality are very far apart." GP10 made this observation in the PLOS One interview study.

Healthcare research teams should analyze UTI management as a pathway rather than as a single prescribing event. The PLOS One findings show that expectations may be shaped before a GP consultation, practice staff may influence triage and counselling, and pharmacy-based care may remain invisible to GPs when communication is limited.

• Researchers studying antimicrobial stewardship should code clinical, relational, practical, and organizational influences separately before examining how those influences interact.
• Implementation teams should compare stated intentions with accounts of actual workflow, because the PLOS One participants described workload and time pressure as conditions that could change how antibiotic-sparing conversations occurred.
• Health-service designers should analyze professional boundaries and information exchange, because the PLOS One study found that GPs differed on how much autonomy practice staff should have.
• Evaluation teams should examine contradictory accounts rather than report only consensus, because the study found both concern about pharmacy-led care and recognition that pharmacist expertise may be underused.
• Qualitative analysts should preserve participant language during synthesis, because short quotations can show how trust, uncertainty, and responsibility affect decisions in ways that frequency counts cannot capture.

The study’s quotations also demonstrate why context matters. One GP said, "What’s needed is a consensus among physicians and a shift in societal thinking." GP9 connected antibiotic-sparing care to consistency across professionals and broader patient expectations, according to the November 11, 2026 PLOS One report.

The findings are exploratory and should not be generalized to every GP, country, or healthcare system. The PLOS One authors identified the small sample of 15 teaching physicians and the exclusive focus on GP perspectives as limitations.

The November 11, 2026 PLOS One study shows that qualitative analysis of UTI care can reveal why antibiotic-sparing strategies depend on relationships, workflow, professional boundaries, and communication as well as clinical judgment. The study’s 15 interviews and six themes provide a practical model for examining complex healthcare pathways without reducing participant accounts to prescribing statistics alone. AI-enabled qualitative research can help healthcare teams organize transcripts, compare themes, and locate supporting evidence while keeping researchers responsible for interpretation and ethics. Try Evidano for free to explore a faster workflow for interview and document analysis.