Los Angeles: One In Three County Residents Face Language Barriers making navigation of health care system difficult

[Harold Schiffman]

One In Three Los Angeles County Residents Face Language Barriers That
Could Make It More Difficult To Navigate Health Care System, New
Report Finds

Written on March 24, 2008 – 3:34 pm

A new report indicates that one-third of Los Angeles County residents
face language barriers, prompting some advocates to call for more
language services, particularly in the health care system, the Los
Angeles Times reports. The report, issued on Thursday by the Asian
Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles, looked at data from the
2000 census. According to the report, most residents in five of the
county's eight service planning areas — which the county uses to plan
and deliver health and social services — speak a language other than
English at home. The report said that the top languages other than
English are Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Korean, Armenian, Vietnamese,
Persian, Japanese and Russian.

Advocates said that a lack of adequate language services can result in
delayed care, misdiagnoses and unnecessary procedures, which could
lead to death. Karin Wang, vice president of programs at the Asian
Pacific Center, said, "We want to shine a spotlight on how large a
problem this is," adding, "We don't want language to be the reason
people don't get quality health care." Forty-nine percent of the 3.9
million patient visits handled by the county Department of Health
Services in 2007 involved people with limited English-language skills,
the Times reports. Spanish speakers accounted for the vast majority of
such visits, with 1.9 million visits, followed by those who speak
Korean, accounting for 17,000 patient visits, according to the Times.

Miya Iwataki, director of diversity programs for the county Department
of Health Services, said the county has improved its language services
since 2007. The county is hiring nine full-time medical interpreters
for its four public hospitals, the first time that such staff has been
dedicated to the facilities.

In addition, the county has expanded its use of a videoconferencing
system that links patients and physicians to interpreters and
continues to use a telephone interpretation system.

Iwataki said the possibility of budget cuts in Los Angeles County
could affect efforts to further expand language assistance services
(Watanabe, Los Angeles Times, 3/21).

The report is available online (.pdf).

http://03530.com/2008/03/24/one-in-three-los-angeles-county-residents-face-language-barriers-that-could-make-it-more-difficult-to-navigate-health-care-system-new-report-finds.html
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