---
title: "Most patients in U.S. have high praise for their health care providers"
description: "While many physicians in the United States report frustrations with their work, the public continues to hold health care providers in high regard."
date: "2017-08-02"
authors:
  - name: "Mark Strauss"
    job_title: "Former Writer/Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/mark-strauss/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/08/02/most-patients-in-u-s-have-high-praise-for-their-health-care-providers/"
categories:
  - "Business & Workplace"
  - "Health Care"
  - "Health Policy"
  - "Medicine & Health"
---

# Most patients in U.S. have high praise for their health care providers

[![Views on the usefulness of libraries vary by race and ethnicity](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/08/FT_17.08.22_libraries_useful.png?w=224)](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/08/FT_17.08.22_libraries_useful.png)

[![(Jeff Greenberg/UIG via Getty Images)](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/FT_17.07.27_healthcare.jpg.jpg)](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/08/02/most-patients-in-u-s-have-high-praise-for-their-health-care-providers/ft_17-07-27_healthcare-jpg/)
*(Jeff Greenberg/UIG via Getty Images)*

While many physicians in the United States report [frustrations with their work](http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/838437_1), the public continues to hold health care providers in high regard.

[![](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/08/FT_17.08.02_HealthCaremostpeople.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/08/02/most-patients-in-u-s-have-high-praise-for-their-health-care-providers/ft_17-08-02_healthcaremostpeople/)

Nearly nine-in-ten Americans (87%) who have seen a health care provider in the past year say their concerns or descriptions of symptoms were carefully listened to, and 84% say they felt their provider “really cared about (their) health and well-being,” according to a [Pew Research Center survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/02/02/americans-health-care-behaviors-and-use-of-conventional-and-alternative-medicine/) conducted in spring 2016. Just 23% of patients said they “felt rushed by their health care provider,” and even fewer (15%) felt confused about instructions they got for treatment or at-home care.

These findings come despite a range of negative experiences reported by health care providers themselves. Professional burnout, for example, is reportedly [on the rise](http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/838437_1) among physicians due to long work hours and excessive administrative burdens. Pediatricians find it harder to do their jobs as they confront a [growing number](http://web.missouri.edu/~segerti/3830/Vaccines.pdf) of parents who are hesitant to vaccinate their children.

Adding to this pressure, the medical personnel at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have had to cope with some [750 potentially serious health threats](https://www.cdc.gov/outbreaks/) in the past two years, even as the agency faces [budget uncertainties](http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/05/23/529654114/medical-research-health-care-face-deep-cuts-in-trump-budget) in the year ahead. Medical professionals and other stakeholders also have been [shut out](https://www.acponline.org/acp-newsroom/americas-frontline-physicians-urge-us-senate-to-find-a-new-way-forward-with-health-care) of congressional deliberations about repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, their own patients have grown more critical about the country’s health care system: A [2014 Pew Research Center survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/01/29/chapter-2-perspectives-on-the-place-of-science-in-society/) found that just 26% of adults say U.S. health care is above average or the best in the world, down from 39% in 2009.

Health care providers are not the only medical professionals who receive favorable ratings from the public. Medical scientists are likewise held in high esteem.

For example, in a [2016 Pew Research Center survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/10/04/the-politics-of-climate/#confidence-in-scientists-and-other-groups-to-act-in-the-public-interest), 84% of Americans expressed at least a fair amount of confidence in medical scientists to act in the best interests of the public. And a [2013 survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2013/07/11/public-esteem-for-military-still-high/) revealed that 66% of Americans believe doctors contribute “a lot” to the well-being of society – a higher rating than for the clergy, journalists and business executives.

Moreover, although pediatricians are confronting an increasing number of vaccine-hesitant parents, the majority of the U.S. public still wants them engaged in the issue. Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults (73%) [believe](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/02/02/vast-majority-of-americans-say-benefits-of-childhood-vaccines-outweigh-risks/) that medical scientists should have a major role in policy decisions related to childhood vaccines.