Patient length of stay, patient readmission rates and the provision of professional interpreting services in healthcare in Australia

Professional Interpreter Services and the Impact on Hospital Care Outcomes: An Integrative Review of Literature

“…Length of stay (LOS) and readmission rates are quality indicators that assess the overall hospital care performance. Five included studies collected hospital administrative patient data to observe the patterns of LOS and readmission rates of patients provided with professional interpreter services [ 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 ].…”

“…Studies that focused on the impact of the provision of interpreter services on LOS reported complex findings. One longitudinal study from Australia found a significant negative correlation between LOS and the staffing of interpreter services which suggested that as staffing increased for interpreter services, patient LOS decreased [ 41 ]. Two studies illustrated that the provision of professional interpreter services at different time-points of hospital admission and discharge had an impact on LOS [ 42 , 43 ].…”

“…In a pre–post-intervention study, Karliner et al [ 45 ] also found a decrease in readmission rates during the intervention period, but this was not maintained in the post-intervention period. In contrast, three studies did not have findings associated with the provision of interpreter services and readmission rates in which outcome factors were not fully captured on the hospital administrative system [ 41 , 42 , 44 ].…”

Testing the use of translation apps to overcome everyday healthcare communication in Australian aged‐care hospital wards—An exploratory study

“…However, language barriers between healthcare workers and patients can result in poorer healthcare outcomes for the individual. These can include longer hospital stays (Ali & Watson, 2018;Beagley et al, 2020), higher risk of adverse events during admission (Johnstone & Kanitsaki, 2006;van Rosse et al, 2016) and higher rates of readmission (Karliner et al, 2010). For healthcare staff, communication challenges as a result of language barriers with a patient can seriously impede the ability to provide effective care (Richardson et al, 2006).…”

“…The importance of interpreters in overcoming language barriers in the healthcare setting is widely recognized, and it is well established that patient outcomes improve when an interpreter is engaged when necessary (Beagley et al, 2020;Flores, 2005;Karliner et al, 2007). Within Australia, the need for interpreters in overcoming communication gaps in healthcare settings is established within legislation and government healthcare policy (Garrett, 2009;Hlavac et al, 2018).…”