But how do you know whether the patient has a resistant infection before giving antibiotics? Are you suggesting every patient is cultured to find out what the underlying infection is before starting treatment?<p>From recent experience of being hospitalized with pneumonia, they were pumping me full of antibiotics and asking questions later. The culture on my sputum never came back with a clear answer even a couple days later. But they found an antibiotic that worked. I doubt I&#x27;ll ever know what bacteria ultimately caused the infection. Clearly it was resistant to a few antibiotics that weren&#x27;t working. Should they instead have left me with a 104 degree fever near death for a few days while trying to figure out if antibiotics would be effective or not, even though the culturing process might not even give a clear answer?