1. Bipartisan Congressional Health Policy Conference Lessons from Abroad
THE COMMONWEALTH
FUND
Bipartisan Congressional Health Policy Conference Lessons from Abroad
International Efforts to Improve Quality,
Reduce Costs and Increase Transparency
Evidence from the 2006 International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians in Seven Countries
January 12-14, 2007
John E. Craig, Jr.

2. Primary Care Doctors Use of Electronic Patient Medical Records, 2006
Percent
Source: 2006 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians

3. Primary Care Practices with Advanced Information Capacity
Percent reporting 7 or more out of 14 functions*
*Count of 14: EMR, EMR access other doctors, outside office, patient; routine use electronic ordering tests, prescriptions, access test results, access hospital records; computer for reminders, Rx alerts, prompt tests results; easy to list diagnosis, medications, patients due for care.
Source: 2006 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians

4. Providing a Medical Home: Doctor’s Practice Has Arrangement for Patients’ After-Hours Care to See Nurse/Doctor
Percent
Source: 2006 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians

5. Providing a Medical Home: Doctors’ Reports of Care Coordination Problems
Percent saying their patients “often/ sometimes” experienced:
AUS
CAN
GER
NET NZ UK US
Records or clinical information not available at time of appointment 28 42 11 16 36 40
Tests/procedures repeated because findings unavailable 10 20 5 7 14 27
Problems because care was not well coordinated across sites/providers 39 46 22 47 49 65 37
Source: 2006 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians

6. Percent of Doctors Reporting Practice Is Well Prepared to Care for Chronic Diseases
Percent reporting “well prepared”:
AUS
CAN
GER
NET NZ UK US
Patients with multiple chronic diseases 69 55 93 75 67 76 68
Patients with mental health problems 50 40 70 65 48 37
Source: 2006 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians

7. Primary Care Doctors’ Reports of Any Financial Incentives Targeted on Quality of Care
Percent reporting any financial incentive*
*Receive of have potential to receive payment for: clinical care targets, high patient ratings, managing chronic disease/complex needs, preventive care, or QI activities
Source: 2006 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians

8. Learning from the International Experience
Physicians in Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the UK most likely to report multi-task IT systems; U.S. and Canada lag behind
Integration and coordination of care are a shared challenge, although countries like Germany are doing better than the U.S.
Widespread primary care doctor participation in a range of quality improvement activities although safety tracking systems are rare except in the U.K.
Our Panel
Christof Veit, M.D., Director, Regional Office, EQS Hamburg, Germany
Helan Bevan, Director of Service Transformation, U.K. NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement
Robert Galvin, M.D., Director for Global Health, General Electric