Physicians' views on quality of care: A five-country comparison

Interest is resurging in the problems relating to the quality of patient ca re. This paper provides a comparative perspective on this issue from a five -country physician survey conducted in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States in 2000. Physicians in all five count ries reported a recent decline in quality of care and concerns with how hos pitals address medical errors. Physicians in four countries expressed serio us concerns about shortages of medical specialists and inadequate facilitie s. U,S. physicians reported problems caused by patients' inability to pay f or prescription drugs and medical care. Asked about efforts to improve qual ity of care in the future, physicians indicated support for electronic medi cal records, electronic prescribing, and initiatives to reduce medical erro rs.