United States fares poorly in international patient survey

The country was rated first only in effectiveness of care.

By Elaine Monaghan, AMNews staff. April 24, 2006.

Washington -- Adult patients in the United States are less safe, not as well informed by their doctors and more unequally treated than people in five other developed nations that spend far less treating them, according to two studies released earlier this month by the Commonwealth Fund.

America ranked last overall when compared with Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom in one study, "Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall: An Update on the Quality of American Health Care Through the Patient's Lens."

This analysis compared U.S. health leaders to the vain queen in "Snow White." Too often, they excluded experiences of other countries, looking only "at our own reflection in the mirror," the report states.

Based on 2004 and 2005 surveys, it found that American patients were most likely to say they encountered a laboratory test mistake or delay in receiving abnormal results, did not get questions answered by their physician, struggled to get needed care at nights or on weekends, and failed to fill or take prescriptions due to cost.

Janet Corrigan, PhD, president and CEO of the National Quality Forum and the National Committee for Quality Health Care, said the study should not be read as an indictment of physicians, but as further evidence of the need to reform the country's disorganized health system. She noted the study's reliance on patient assessments. "You might get different results if you asked physicians or looked at medical records."