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Hi my name is Bianca Garcia. I am currently a Registered Nurse at Cleveland Clinic Indian River. I graduated from Indian River State College in 2019. This policy to tackle language barriers within the healthcare system is important to me because of my hispanic background as well as what I've witness during my nursing career.
With an increasing growth of population diversity within the United States, an increase in language diversity follows. Rise in language diversity creates a challenge within the healthcare setting to maintain the quality of care provided. Healthcare facilities lack the necessary resources and bilingual staff to keep up with the demand of spanish speaking patients. Communication barriers put the patient at risk for adverse outcomes. Therefore, a policy that advocates for patients who don't speak English and requires facilities to accommodate the care provided to meet their communication needs is required.
The United States Census Bureau (2019) reports the hispanic population makes up 18.5% of the total population and continues to rise.
Patients with a limited English proficiency (LEP) receive a decreased quality of healthcare delivery and patient safety. By implementing a policy that requires LEP patients to receive equal quality of care within the healthcare system, LEP patients will experience an increase in the quality of care provided as well as an increase in patient satisfaction.
Under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives Federal funds or other Federal financial assistance (HHS, 2013)." Health care facilities are required to provide free oral and written language assistance to LEP patients. Failure to do provide services can lead to loss of federal funding as it is a a form of discrimination.
Communication is a vital part of healthcare; obtaining the signs and symptoms of patients in order to diagnosis, obtain a medical history and explain diagnosis and treatment. Language barriers can inhibit the delivery of quality care affecting the patients human rights.
Despite the importance of communication when asked LEP patients reported:
Language barriers within the hospital can be improved by providing handouts with information regarding medication, diagnosis and treatment options in the native language of patients. Diamond (2019) reports "one in five people in the USA speaks a language other than English at home." Facilities are required to provide a trained interpreter for patients, a system to implement certification requirements in order to translate for patients will reduce translation errors. Studies on language- concordant care resulted in "positive findings identified included patient-reported measures, such as patient satisfaction and understanding of diagnosis, and objective measures (Diamond, 2019)
Telehealth allows patients to have "access to services especially general practice
consultation from home via telephone or by using technology for video conferencing (Javanparast (2020)." A future idea would be to expand the availability and staff of telehealth and offer patients to be consulted by a healthcare provider that is fluent in their native language. Expanding telehealth to different states and possibly one day other countries can open several opportunities such as extended time availability and an increase in available staff.
Bureau, U. (n.d.). Census.gov. Retrieved April 15, 2021, from https://www.census.gov/
Diamond, L., Izquierdo, K., Canfield, D., Matsoukas, K., & Gany, F. (2019). A systematic review of the impact of patient–physician non-english language concordance on quality of care and outcomes. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 34(8), 1591-1606. doi:10.1007/s11606-019-04847-5
Javanparast, S., Roeger, L., Kwok, H., & Reed, R. (2020). The experience of Australian general practice patients at high risk of poor health outcomes With telehealth during the COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A qualitative study. doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-123146/v1
Secretary, H., & (OCR), O. (2013, July 26). Civil rights Requirements Title VI of the civil Rights Act. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-individuals/special-topics/needy-families/civil-rights-requirements/index.html