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. In the United States, a third of specialists give hospitals a fair or poor rating on medical error tracking or correction systems. Twenty-nine percent of U.S. primary care doctors and 36 percent of Canadian primary care doctors rate their hospitals as fair or poor in this area, as do 45 percent of generalists in Australia and New Zealand, and more than half of generalists in the United Kingdom. Many doctors say they are not encouraged to report medical errors.
Physicians also express concern about their ability to keep abreast of new medical developments.
Fewer than one of three primary care physicians in any country reports being very satisfied with his or her ability to remain knowledgeable and keep up. Four of 10 specialists in Australia, Canada, and the United States report being very satisfied, but only one of five specialists in New Zealand and one of four specialists in the United Kingdom report being very satisfied in their ability to keep up. Time Spent with Patients Also a Concern American physicians say the adequacy of nursing staff levels is their greatest concern about hospital resources, with half of primary care doctors and two-thirds of specialists rating nursing staff levels as fair or poor. This emerges as a key concern for U.S. doctors as the only resource widely viewed in short supply. A lack of nurses is also seen as a serious problem in the four other countries surveyed, particularly in the United Kingdom, where more than 80 percent of primary care and specialist doctors rate nursing staff levels as fair or poor.