Language Barriers Adversely Impact Health-care Quality

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Language Barriers Adversely Impact Health-care Quality

ScienceDaily (Nov. 14, 2007)  For the millions of Americans whose native
tongue isnt English, language remains a critical road block to quality
healthcare, according to a University of California, Irvine study.
Researchers in the Center for Health Policy Research in the UC Irvine
School of Medicine have found that language barriers between patients and
healthcare providers result in longer hospital stays, more medical errors
and lower patient satisfaction.

In a nationwide study of more than 2,700 patients who have limited
English-language proficiency, Dr. Quyen Ngo-Metzger and colleagues found
that these language barriers were associated with less health education,
poorer doctor-patient interactions and lower patient satisfaction.

Specifically, the researchers found that patients who did not speak the
same language as their doctors were less likely to receive lifestyle
counseling in diet, exercise and smoking cessation. In turn, having access
to a clinic interpreter allowed health education to take place and
partially overcome the language barrier.

However, in patients ratings of their doctors and the quality of
interpersonal care, having an interpreter did not serve as a substitute
for shared language. Patients who were able to speak directly with their
doctors were the most satisfied with their care.

While interpreters are a necessary solution to the problem of language
barriers in healthcare, our findings suggest they are likely to be an
imperfect one, said Ngo-Metzger, an assistant professor of medicine at UC
Irvine. It remains important that our healthcare system recruit and train
more bilingual providers to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse
population.

According to the 2000 census, approximately 47 million people in the U.S.
speak a language other than English at home.


Their study appears in a special Language Barriers in Health Care issue of
the Journal of General Internal Medicine published this month.

Dr. Sheldon Greenfield, Sherrie Kaplan and Dara Sorkin of UC Irvine; Dr.
Russell Phillips of Harvard Medical School; Michael Massagli of the Dana
Farber Cancer Institute in Boston; and Brian Clarridge of the University
of Massachusetts-Boston participated in the study, which received support
from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Commonwealth
Fund.

Adapted from materials provided by University of California - Irvine.

http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2007/11/071113132304.htm


***********************************************************************************

N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal.

***********************************************************************************