I am curious why you wrote is there anything I can do about this legally"???
It is not unusual for the lab to take 3 days because certain bacteria needs 3 days to grow in the lab dish. That happened to me, and I was glad the hospital finally learned what type of bacteria they were dealing with. Thus, the hospital took me off one antibiotic and onto another for that certain bacteria.
Turnaround for a lab urine culture is usually three days. By identifying the bacteria in question, the MD then knows which antibiotic to prescribe. Sometimes a doctor will prescribe something in the mean time, but if the urine sample is clear and good color, they may not.
I concur with the answers above. The time it takes for a bacteria to grow at the lab varies and is at minimal 48 hrs, and more commonly longed. They need the culture growth identified to determine which antibiotic to use so it is effective. People become resistant to antibiotics and the treating physician usually prefers to identify what the bacteria is so they can treat it properly. Too many antibiotics can cause side effects like opportunistic infections such as C.difficile. It's prudent to be certain especially in elderly patients. 3 days is not unreasonable.
Due to a medical condition that required surgery I was getting somewhat frequent UTIs. The last three UTIs initially came up negative - it wasn't until the culturing process - a process that can take a few days - that my UTIs were correctly identified as positive. As everyone else has stated - taking a few days is completely typical.
It is not unusual for the lab to take 3 days because certain bacteria needs 3 days to grow in the lab dish. That happened to me, and I was glad the hospital finally learned what type of bacteria they were dealing with. Thus, the hospital took me off one antibiotic and onto another for that certain bacteria.