{"id":2939,"date":"2025-08-01T01:00:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T05:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/?page_id=2939"},"modified":"2026-01-30T07:35:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:35:44","slug":"appropriate-treatment-for-upper-respiratory-infection-uri","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/appropriate-treatment-for-upper-respiratory-infection-uri\/","title":{"rendered":"Appropriate Treatment for Upper Respiratory Infection (URI)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The percentage of episodes for persons 3 months of age and older with a diagnosis of upper respiratory infection (URI) that did not result in an antibiotic dispensing event.<\/p>\n<h2>Why It Matters<\/h2>\n<p>The common cold (or URI) is a frequent reason for patients visiting the doctor\u2019s office. Though existing clinical guidelines do not support the use of antibiotics for the common cold, physicians often prescribe them for this ailment<sup><a href=\"#ref-1\">1<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>Clinical practice guidelines do not recommend antibiotics for a majority of upper respiratory tract infections because of the viral etiology of these infections, including the common cold. A performance measure of antibiotic use for URI sheds light on the prevalence of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in clinical practice and raises awareness of the importance of reducing inappropriate antibiotic use to combat antibiotic resistance in the community.<\/p>\n<p>This measure is reported as an inverted rate. A higher rate indicates better performance (i.e., the proportion of episodes that did not result in an antibiotic dispensing event).<\/p>\n<h2><span data-teams=\"true\">Historical Results \u2013 National Averages<\/span><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The percentage of episodes for persons 3 months of age and older with a diagnosis of upper respiratory infection (URI) that did not result in an antibiotic dispensing event. Why It Matters The common cold (or URI) is a frequent reason for patients visiting the doctor\u2019s office. Though existing clinical guidelines do not support the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":733,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2939","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Appropriate Treatment for Upper Respiratory Infection (URI) - NCQA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Assesses children 3 months\u201318 years of age who were given a diagnosis of upper respiratory infection (URI) and were not dispensed an antibiotic prescription. A higher rate indicates appropriate treatment of children with URI.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/appropriate-treatment-for-upper-respiratory-infection-uri\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Appropriate Treatment for Upper Respiratory Infection (URI) - NCQA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Assesses children 3 months\u201318 years of age who were given a diagnosis of upper respiratory infection (URI) and were not dispensed an antibiotic prescription. A higher rate indicates appropriate treatment of children with URI.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/appropriate-treatment-for-upper-respiratory-infection-uri\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NCQA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NCQA.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-30T12:35:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/NCQA_cmyk_tag.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"627\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@NCQA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/appropriate-treatment-for-upper-respiratory-infection-uri\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/appropriate-treatment-for-upper-respiratory-infection-uri\/\",\"name\":\"Appropriate Treatment for Upper Respiratory Infection (URI) - NCQA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-01T05:00:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-30T12:35:44+00:00\",\"description\":\"Assesses children 3 months\u201318 years of age who were given a diagnosis of upper respiratory infection (URI) and were not dispensed an antibiotic prescription. A higher rate indicates appropriate treatment of children with URI.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/appropriate-treatment-for-upper-respiratory-infection-uri\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/appropriate-treatment-for-upper-respiratory-infection-uri\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/appropriate-treatment-for-upper-respiratory-infection-uri\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Report Cards\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Health Plans\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"State of Health Care Quality Report\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":5,\"name\":\"Appropriate Treatment for Upper Respiratory Infection (URI)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\",\"name\":\"NCQA\",\"description\":\"Measuring quality. Improving health care.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"National Committee for Quality Assurance\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"NCQA\",\"alternateName\":\"National Committee for Quality Assurance\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/NCQA-Blog-Logo-Thumbnail.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/NCQA-Blog-Logo-Thumbnail.jpg\",\"width\":876,\"height\":673,\"caption\":\"NCQA\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NCQA.org\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/NCQA\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ncqa_dc\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@NcqaOrg\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/ncqa\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Appropriate Treatment for Upper Respiratory Infection (URI) - NCQA","description":"Assesses children 3 months\u201318 years of age who were given a diagnosis of upper respiratory infection (URI) and were not dispensed an antibiotic prescription. A higher rate indicates appropriate treatment of children with URI.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/appropriate-treatment-for-upper-respiratory-infection-uri\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Appropriate Treatment for Upper Respiratory Infection (URI) - NCQA","og_description":"Assesses children 3 months\u201318 years of age who were given a diagnosis of upper respiratory infection (URI) and were not dispensed an antibiotic prescription. A higher rate indicates appropriate treatment of children with URI.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/appropriate-treatment-for-upper-respiratory-infection-uri\/","og_site_name":"NCQA","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NCQA.org","article_modified_time":"2026-01-30T12:35:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":627,"url":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/NCQA_cmyk_tag.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@NCQA","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/appropriate-treatment-for-upper-respiratory-infection-uri\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/appropriate-treatment-for-upper-respiratory-infection-uri\/","name":"Appropriate Treatment for Upper Respiratory Infection (URI) - NCQA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-08-01T05:00:46+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-30T12:35:44+00:00","description":"Assesses children 3 months\u201318 years of age who were given a diagnosis of upper respiratory infection (URI) and were not dispensed an antibiotic prescription. A higher rate indicates appropriate treatment of children with URI.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/appropriate-treatment-for-upper-respiratory-infection-uri\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/appropriate-treatment-for-upper-respiratory-infection-uri\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/appropriate-treatment-for-upper-respiratory-infection-uri\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Report Cards","item":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Health Plans","item":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"State of Health Care Quality Report","item":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"name":"Appropriate Treatment for Upper Respiratory Infection (URI)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/","name":"NCQA","description":"Measuring quality. Improving health care.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#organization"},"alternateName":"National Committee for Quality Assurance","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#organization","name":"NCQA","alternateName":"National Committee for Quality Assurance","url":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/NCQA-Blog-Logo-Thumbnail.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/NCQA-Blog-Logo-Thumbnail.jpg","width":876,"height":673,"caption":"NCQA"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NCQA.org","https:\/\/x.com\/NCQA","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ncqa_dc\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@NcqaOrg","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/ncqa\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49487,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2939\/revisions\/49487"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}