There are few analysis on rational drug prescription in Turkey. The main social security systems which are Emekli Sandigi and Bag-Kur have to reimburse and the cost is very high. Due to the reimbursement of these irrational prescriptions the social security systems (Emekli Sandigi, Bag-Kur, Sosyal Sigortalar) have reached the point of financial crisis and the systems need reorganizing. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to conduct a preliminary study to be able to establish the effects of prescribing habits on the profile of antibiotic use for the treatment of respiratory diseases in outpatients and its economic outcome. METHODS: For this purpose 2278 randomized prescriptions from January 1998- between September 1999 were collected from Emekli Sandigi and Bag-Kur. The medical information including the length of time the medications were extracted. RESULTS: The analysis on the antibiotics prescribed revealed that of the total 6824 medicines 572 were antibiotics (8,4%). While sulbactam-ampicillin was the widely prescribed antibiotic (20%), azithromycin was the least (3%). The average total cost of antibiotic treatment was $10,46 (range $1,27-$26,56) per patient. CONCLUSIONS: Taking the results of this pilot study into consideration, a master study for Turkey is planned which will include cost-effectiveness analyses for the empiric management of polymicrobial infections.