Overcoming Language Barriers Health Care : Costs And Benefits Of Interpreter Services

The purpose of this quality improvement study was to evaluate nurses’ perceptions on the use of communication boards for non-English speaking patients, primarily Spanish and Russian speaking patients.

Non-English speaking citizens and immigrants are receiving improper medical care because of the miscommunication. The people who cannot speak English well are misunderstood, when they go to free clinics or hospital emergency rooms and attempt to explain their symptoms and illness or cannot understand the doctors or medical profession that are trying to help them. ” Interpreters are omitting questions about drug allergies. Patients are not telling nurses the correct symptoms. A mother misunderstood by putting oral antibiotic into the ears of the child instead of the mouth. The Puerto Rican word for mumps is not the same in Central America, so a child was mistreated. A doctor mistakenly told a parent to put a steroid crème on entire child instead of just the face” (Yolanda Prtida, 2005). Language barriers in the medical field are dangerous and some times even fatal. There is definitely a need for more translators in hospitals and doctors office. Clear communication is essential for safe quality healthcare. Poor communication can lead to disastrous outcomes, especially for patients with limited or no English ability.

According to the 2011 U.S. Census, twenty-one percent of the population speaks other language at home besides English. Hence, one of the biggest challenges in Healthcare is the language barrier between the providers, Health care administrators and patients that speak foreign languages. This poses a challenge for medical entities,

In the state of Massachusetts the state law states that the emergency department patients with limited English proficiency have the right to a medical interpreter (Ginde, Clark, & Camargo, 2009). Having a medical interpreter for patients that have limited English proficiency will increase the quality of health care they receive; it also increases patient compliance and increases patient satisfaction. The use of professional interpreters is shown to decrease revisiting the emergency department, and increase this population’s use of outpatient clinics for follow up care (Ginde et al., 2009).

Can you imagine the how the healthcare industry would be without language, what seems to be impossible to imagine is the everyday reality of some patients because of their native language. Language is a major contribution to the health disparities that some populations face, because it makes it difficult for some patients to communicate their problems as well as understand the care they provided. Language contributes to the health disparities that some populations face because it creates a barrier between the patient and the care provider, making it difficult for a patient to receive proper care. Language barriers create a communication gap between a patient and a provider, forcing the patient to feel misunderstood and unable to trust his/her provider to properly care for them. I come from a family that speaks more than one language, so I have seen the impact language barriers can have on someone who doesn’t speak fluent English.

For example; If a patient does not speak the language of which country they are in, interpreters or translators may be needed in order to help communicate with people from the local area. These are important to keep the person informed about what is happening and what is going to happen. Supporting individuals to express their needs and

(2013) discussed the issue of lack of english skills being a primary barrier for patients receiving adequate health care. The article also mentions how studies have shown that Spanish speaking Latinos are less satisfied with the health care that they received in determine whether comparison to their English speaking counterparts. The purpose of the study was to Spanish speaking Latinos have an increased quality of care when provided with an interpreter during their visit. The population for the study was 30 patients in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, whose primary language was spanish. The intervention implied that the use of interpreters will improve the quality of healthcare received by non english speaking patients. The comparison aimed at urging providers to make an effort to provide legally appropriate care to patients who are unable to speak english. The outcome of the study was that miscommunication between healthcare workers can end up causing medical mistakes and liabilities. It was found that when facilities provided patients with interpreter services, the patient perception of quality care was

We asked the following group the following five questions in which they all answer and we followed by a group discussion to improve our approach to offering our patients an interpreter service via phone/Marti or live interpreter. We focused on both positive and negative aspect on how we can achieve 100% compliance.

Effective communication with patients is critical to the safety and quality care. From the last two decades ,number of researches has been conducted on the impact of language barrier on health and healthcare. It is observed that language barriers are the main cause of medical errors, complication and adverse event. But due to data limitations ,limited researches on impacts of language barrier has been conducted in Canadian setting. However, the researches conducted on other countries on the impact of language barrier on quality of care is applicable in the Canadian context. Some researches shows that there are several barrier which affect quality of care and patient safety. Now, researches has begun to know the complexity of language, culture, race, health literacy that may affect patient care. Current approaches are moved towards the knowledge of risk of language barrier rather than implementation of effective, evidence informed strategies.

Insuring that the patient fully understands what is being done to them is of great importance. As patients, they have the right to understand what is being done and why. Informed consent must be given; the patient should be able to repeat what they have been informed of before the procedure is done. Currently “only 33 percent of U.S. hospitals have quality improvement efforts underway to improve the quality of their language access programs.” (Armand and Hubbard, 2010). The goal of the interpreter is to assure that the LEP patient has no doubts or concerns and totally understands what is going to happen, why, and any options they may have.

They must be comfortable with the idea of discussing “sensitive or personal issues” as a result of having to interpret symptoms and the reason why each patient visited a healthcare center. Also, interpreters must be able to “understand and present information of a scientific or technical nature” considering they must translate physician’s questions and answers in order for patients to be able to understand them and respond appropriately. The main focus of an interpreter communication (Santiago, 2014). Even so, responsibilities of an interpreter are continuously changing as they evolve to meet the needs of patients and become higher valued members of a healthcare team (ExploreHealthCareers.org,

I see many challenges in regards to providing care to patients that do not speak English especially in the healthcare realm. From the very beginning we need to know what is wrong, what happened, how long it has been going for, what medical history they have, allergies, and medication taken. How can we treat what we do not know is wrong? In order to probably do some root cause analysis you need to drill down and see what is going on, which cannot be done if you cannot communicate. Also, you do not know what I making things better. These non-English speaking individuals will have unmet needs because of my inability to

Effective communication is important in providing safe health care. Miscommunication can lead to many errors, which can inadvertently affect compliance, accurate diagnosis, and health promotion. There are a variety of translation services offered in the United States; however,

In my article they talk about what pediatricians are required to do when they are treating a child who has limited English proficiency. If a patient comes in who doesn’t speak English and the doctor does not offer an interpreter that could be seen as discrimination. Under the civil rights act in 1964 anyone who receive federal money whether that be a school, hospital, or a job. You may not discriminate against some one based on their race or national origin. Now whether they are so-called “required” to provide an interpreter can depend on many factors. The us department of health and human services, office for civil rights had rules/ guidelines for making sure that people who have limited English proficiency are able to receive the same quality

During the study, Davidson said that the scarcity of time become the factor of the patient in medical interview. It is because the patients who used interpreter often were left alone for sometimes an hour while they waited for the interpreter to arrive (Baker, 2010 p.160). Moreover, Davidson said that the interpreters are possibly conducted the interview with the patient before the physician arrived (Baker, 2010 p.160). They took a charge of physician’s position by asking questions the patient about the illness before they convey it to the physician. This affects the process of elaborating a Chief Complaint from patient which becomes shorter. Besides, the interpreters also would occasionally go so far as to conduct the initial portions of the interviews itself. According to Davidson in Baker (2010, p.164) the interferences of interpreter in medical interview create harms for the physician. For instance, in