In addition, the survey finds that fewer than one of six U.S. physicians thinks his or her ability to provide quality care improved over the last five years, despite increased spending and medical advances seen in the same period. These findings are alarming. Doctors' concerns sound a wake-up call. The good news is that they don't view the situation as irreversible and offer concrete suggestions for improvement. Among other findings, the survey shows doctors giving hospitals low marks in addressing medical errors.
Doctors also find it a struggle to keep up with the latest developments in their fields.
Waiting times for care is seen as a problem in all countries, except the United States, where doctors worry about patients' ability to afford care, notably prescription drugs. Doctors in all countries think spending more time with patients can improve quality and cite lack of time now as a major problem. Physicians also see improvement coming from new information technology, such as electronic prescribing and electronic medical records. Across all five countries, many physicians give low marks to the job hospitals do finding and addressing errors. With the exception of the United States, approximately half of all specialists surveyed rate hospitals as fair or poor on medical errors tracking systems.