Prometheus 6

The study is the latest of many to document that the United States lags on some measures of health and care despite spending more on medical care than any other nation. Annual U.S. medical spending was $5,635 per person in 2003.

U.S. Lags in Several Areas of Health Care, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 3, 2006; A14

Americans have a harder time than residents of several other countries getting after-hours appointments with a nurse or primary care physician without going to an emergency room, a study released yesterday found.

Forty percent of U.S. primary care doctors said they had arrangements for after-hours care, according to the survey of more than 6,000 physicians in seven countries. That compared with 95 percent in the Netherlands, 90 percent in New Zealand, 87 percent in the United Kingdom, 76 percent in Germany and 47 percent in Canada.

The study, published online by the journal Health Affairs, also found that the United States trails other countries in adopting electronic medical records and computerized systems to remind patients about follow-up care, prompt physicians to give patients test results and warn of potentially harmful drug interactions. It found that primary care doctors in America were less likely to have financial incentives to improve the quality of the care they provide.

"Although the U.S. pays more for health care than any other country, we are under-investing in our primary care system," Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, the foundation that sponsored the survey, said in a statement. "Other countries have made high-quality primary care a priority by putting into place the financial and technical systems that support access to, and delivery of, such care."

The study is the latest of many to document that the United States lags on some measures of health and care despite spending more on medical care than any other nation. Annual U.S. medical spending was $5,635 per person in 2003. The next highest among the seven countries surveyed was $3,003 in Canada; the Netherlands spent the least, $1,886 per person. In that vein, U.S. primary care doctors were the most likely to say their patients often had difficulty paying for medications or other care, the survey found.