Report: Health-care system is failing to improve patient care.(The Dallas Morning News)

WASHINGTON _ Despite major advances in medical research and disease treatment, the American health-care system is failing to improve the care of patients, according to a major new report by the Institute of Medicine.

The report, released Thursday, said patients are getting stuck in a labyrinth in which doctors don't talk to one another, personal medical records are not easy to obtain, and insurance companies offer few incentives to provide quality, cost-effective care.

Perhaps most troubling, experts say, is that proven medical advances that can save lives are not being used in everyday practice.

"We are saying that the care is not satisfactory," said Dr. Donald Berwick, a member of the committee that wrote the report for the institute.

The Institute of Medicine is part of the National Academy of Sciences, a private organization chartered by Congress to advise the government on scientific matters.

"We are saying that major improvements are urgent, they're needed," said Berwick, who also is a professor at Harvard Medical School and president of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston.

Among the recommendations of the Committee on Quality of Health Care in America: