Predictors of language service availability in U.S. hospitals

Schiaffino, Melody K.; Al‐Amin, Mona; Schumacher, Jessica R.

doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2014.95

Cited by 23 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 32 publications

(42 reference statements)

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“…28 Despite these mandates, about a third of US hospitals do not offer language services. 29 The provision of linguistically appropriate care already presents a challenge to health systems, making it unclear how diligently hospitals would establish or maintain compliance when providing telehealth services. This is especially relevant given policy changes implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic that led to the rapid increase in telehealth use.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disparities In Telehealth Use Among California Patients With Limited English Proficiency

et al. 2021

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Telehealth services that allow remote communication between the patient and the clinical team are an emerging part of care delivery. Given language barriers, patients with limited English proficiency present a unique set of challenges in integrating telehealth and ensuring equity. Using data from 84,419 respondents in the 2015-18 California Health Interview Survey, we assessed the association between limited English proficiency and telehealth use (telephone and video visits) and evaluated the impact of telehealth use on health care access and use. We found that patients with limited English proficiency had lower rates of telehealth use (4.8 percent versus 12.3 percent) compared with proficient English speakers. In weighted multivariable logistic regression, patients with limited English proficiency still had about half the odds of using telehealth. Telehealth use was associated with increased emergency department use for all patients. This study suggests that policy makers and clinicians must focus on limited English proficiency as an important dimension to promote telehealth equity and decrease digital divides. F or the 25.6 million people with limited English proficiency in the US, language barriers pose a significant challenge to their health care experience and receipt of high-quality care. 1 Patients with limited English proficiency experience significant disparities in care including increased numbers of hospitalizations, lengths-ofstay, numbers of thirty-day readmissions, and numbers of emergency department (ED) visits and decreased access to preventive services. [2][3][4][5] The equitable deployment of technology offers opportunities to ameliorate these gaps. 6 Telehealth represents an emerging technology that could bridge gaps in care. Evidence suggests that extending care beyond the clinic setting improves access. 7,8 Telehealth has been shown to improve patient satisfaction, care access, and outcomes in multiple diseases, including dermatologic conditions, diabetes, cerebrovascular disease, and alcohol use disorder. 7,9-13 National-

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disparities In Telehealth Use Among California Patients With Limited English Proficiency

et al. 2021

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“…This finding along with previous research supports hypothesis that this increase in language barriers research is associated with increasing LEP populations in nontraditional immigration states within the US. (Schiaffino et al, 2014, Terrazas, 2011) We were unable to adequately describe the languages that were studied outside the US because greater than 60% of those studies did not define the languages they investigated or talked about language barriers generally. Within the US, Spanish continues to be the language most often studied, which is not surprising given that 65% of the LEP population in the US speak Spanish.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in research on language barriers in health care since 2003: A cross-sectional review study

Schwei

Pozo

Agger-Gupta

et al. 2016

International Journal of Nursing Studies

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Background Understanding how to mitigate language barriers is becoming increasingly important for health care providers around the world. Language barriers adversely affect patients in their access to health services; comprehension and adherence; quality of care; and patient and provider satisfaction. In 2003, the United States (US) government made a major change in national policy guidance that significantly affected limited English proficient patients’ ability to access language services. Objective The objectives of this paper are to describe the state of the language barriers literature inside and outside the US since 2003 and to compare the research that was conducted before and after a national policy change occurred in the US. We hypothesize that language barrier research would increase inside and outside the US but that the increase in research would be larger inside the US in response to this national policy change. Methods We reviewed the research literature on language barriers in health care and conducted a cross sectional analysis by tabulating frequencies for geographic location, language group, methodology, research focus and specialty and compared the literature before and after 2003. Results Our sample included 136 studies prior to 2003 and 426 studies from 2003–2010. In the 2003–2010 time period there was a new interest in studying the providers’ perspective instead of or in addition to the patients’ perspective. The methods remained similar between periods with greater than 60% of studies being descriptive and 12% being interventions. Conclusions There was an increase in research on language barriers inside and outside the US and we believe this was larger due to the change in the national policy. We suggest that researchers worldwide should move away from simply documenting the existence of language barriers and should begin to focus their research on documenting how language concordant care influences patient outcomes, providing evidence for interventions that mitigate language barriers, and evaluating the cost effectiveness of providing language concordant care to patients with language barriers. We think this is possible if funding agencies around the world begin to request proposals for these types of research studies. Together, we can begin document meaningful ways to provide high quality health care to patients with language barriers.

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“…Nationwide, we found that 68.8 percent of hospitals offered language services, which is consis-tent with the literature. 6 We saw a lack of uniformity in the need and offering of language services, which varied by hospital location and ownership. Hospitals in areas with moderate need provided proportionately more language services than did hospitals in low-and high-need areas, even when they were adjacent to areas that did not offer the services.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%