Results of National Survey on Hospital Language Services for LEP patients:
Hospital Language Services for Patients with Limited English Proficiency:
Results from a National Study, October 2006. Funded by The California
Endowment, this report was written by the Health Research and Educational Trust/AHA
(HRET) in collaboration with the National Health Law Program (NHeLP). The
report describes current practices, common barriers, and the specific resources
and tools needed to provide language services to patients with LEP. The
results of the survey will inform federal policymakers, practitioners,
providers, and others of the issues and potential solutions facing hospitals as they
work to improve language services for all patients with LEP.
Providing Language Services in State and Local Health-Related Benefits Offices: Examples from the Field
Having appropriate language services available for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) can greatly improve health care experiences. State and local benefits offices that administer Medicaid, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), and other benefit programs are especially important, since they are often the first point of contact for LEP clients. The new Commonwealth Fund report, Providing Language Services in State and Local Health-Related Benefits Offices: Examples from the Field, outlines an eight-step approach to helping benefits offices develop language strategies tailored to their clients' specific needs. Mara Youdelman, Jane Perkins, Jamie D. Brooks, and Deborah Reid, at the National Health Law Program, illustrate each step
with promising practices in place throughout the country. [The Commonwealth Fund, January 2007]
Joint Commission Report recommends strategies for addressing language, cultural challenges
A new report from the Joint Commission recommends strategies to address the language and cultural issues that challenge hospitals as they strive to deliver safe, effective care to diverse patient populations. For example, the report recommends that hospitals serving diverse populations establish a centralized program to coordinate services relating to language and culture; implement a uniform framework for systematic collection of data on race, ethnicity and language; and provide ongoing training to staff on how and when to access language services. The recommendations are based on a study of how 60 hospitals are providing health care to culturally and linguistically diverse patient populations. "These findings cannot be generalized to all hospitals, but they provide detailed information about many ways that culture and language issues are being addressed in hospitals," the authors say.
What did the Doctor say?
Far too often, ordinary citizens are placed at risk for unsafe care because important health care information is communicated using medical jargon and unclear language that exceed their literacy skills, according to a call to action released today by The Joint Commission in its newest public policy white paper, What Did the Doctor Say?:’ Improving Health Literacy to Protect Patient Safety. The paper frames the existing communications gap between patients and caregivers as a series of challenges involving literacy, language, and culture, and suggests multiple steps that need to be taken to narrow or even close this gap. Effective communication is a cornerstone of patient safety, says Dennis S. O’Leary, M.D., president, The Joint Commission. If patients lack basic understanding of their conditions and the whats and whys of the treatments prescribed, therapeutic goals can never be realized, and patients may instead be placed in harm’s way . The Joint Commission report on strategies for addressing health literacy and protecting patient safety contains 35 specific recommendations that cover a wide range of important improvement opportunities including, among others: The sensitization, education and training of clinicians and health care organization leaders and staff regarding health literacy issues and patient-centered communications. The development of patient-friendly navigational aids in health care facilities. The enhanced training and use of interpreters for patients. The re-design of informed consent forms and the informed consent process
Hospitals, Language, and Culture: A Snapshot of the Nation
Hospitals, Language, and Culture is a qualitative cross-sectional study designed to provide a snapshot of how sixty hospitals across the country are providing health care to culturally and linguistically diverse patient populations. This project sought to answer the following questions:
• What challenges do hospitals face when providing care and services to culturally and linguistically diverse populations?
• How are hospitals addressing these challenges?
• Are there promising practices that may be helpful to and can be replicated in other hospitals?
The project findings will be presented in multiple reports. This report highlights findings regarding the first two research questions. A purposive sampling approach was used to select sixty hospitals for this study. Two methods used were judgment sampling (hand-selection) and stratified sampling (demographically-driven). Study data were collected through two mechanisms—a 26-question Pre-Visit Questionnaire completed by each hospital, and
one-day site visits conducted at each hospital by a trained project researcher and a note-taker. Site visits were completed between September 2005 and March 2006. Each site visit consisted of a combination ofadministrative and clinical interviews that focused on six research domains:
• Leadership
• Quality Improvement and Data Use
• Workforce
• Patient Safety and Provision of Care
• Language Services
• Community Engagement
The findings provide unique insight into the challenges, activities, and perspectives of sixty hospitals across the nation and a snapshot of their current situation. These findings cannot be generalized to all hospitals, but they provide detailed information about many ways that culture and language issues are being
addressed in hospitals. Hospitals in this study had generally progressed further in their efforts to address language issues than they had in their efforts to address cultural issues.
Straight Talk: Model Policies and Procedures on Language Access
Straight Talk: Model Hospital Policies and Procedures on Language Access
is the result of the joint efforts of the California Health Care Safety
Net Institute (SNI), which serves as the educational and research
affiliate of the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health
Systems (CAPH), and Melinda Paras, Principal at Paras and Associates.
The adoption of hospital policies and procedures is the essential
mechanism to making a significant change in the operational actions of
the U.S. hospital industry, and has been used throughout the history of
this industry as a mechanism to change practice and establish
expectations on a challenging issue. For example, the creation and
widespread distribution of model policies on issues ranging from sexual
assault to organ donation have created universal standards through which
the hospital industry navigates such issues of social importance. This
document is designed to offer American hospitals a set of tools to
utilize in updating their own internal Policy and Procedure Manuals.
(Language Access Policies and Procedures are typically found in the
Administrative Manuals required in every accredited U.S. hospital.)The
Safety Net Institute published, Straight Talk: Model Policies and
Procedures on Language Access, drawing on best practices in California's
public hospitals and beyond.
http://www.safetynetinstitute.org/publications/documents/StraightTalkFinal.pdf.
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