Language Barriers in Healthcare - Research Paper Example

Language Barriers in Healthcare America is no longer just composed of the White Man who speaks only English. The country is now a melting pot various cultures, traditions, and most importantly languages that represent 26% of our population as of 2007 (Science Daily, 2010). That particular portion of our population are not exempted from the effects of illnesses and therefore require medical diagnosis as well. But with a medical industry staffed by mostly monolingual doctors and medical staff, these Other Language Concordant and Language Discordant patients more often than not fall through the gaps in terms of medical diagnosis. Due to the language barrier, it is difficult for these people to get the proper medical diagnosis and treatment. In effect, the language barrier becomes a punishment and death sentence for their kind. In order to prevent those problems from arising, it is highly important that medical providers become bilingual at the very least. According to findings by Glenn Flores M.D. (2006) that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine: “Some 49.6 million Americans (18.7 percent of U.S. residents) speak a language other than English at home; 22.3 million (8.4 percent) have limited English proficiency, speaking English less than “very well,” according to self-ratings. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of Americans who spoke a language other than English at home grew by 15.1 million (a 47 percent increase), and the number with limited English proficiency grew by 7.3 million (a 53 percent increase, Percentages of Americans Who Speak a Language Other Than English at Home or Who Have Limited English Proficiency.) These stunning survey results prove that English is no longer the main spoken language in our country. Therefore, the medical sector must make the necessary adjustments in order to insure that all our health practitioners will be practicing medicine that will truly benefit the patient. The science of healing is a heavily language based activity. Without the power to fully understand a patients medical concern, it will be next to impossible to properly treat the symptoms present. Dr. Flores (2006) further proves the importance of bilungualism in the healthplace with the following information: “ The numbers are particularly high in some places: in 2000, 40 percent of Californians and 75 percent of Miami residents spoke a language other than English at home, and 20 percent of Californians and 47 percent of Miami residents had limited English proficiency. “ Even though the medical industry is acutely aware of the dire need to staff their medical floors with bilingual medical care providers and assistants, they have always failed to do so. They neglect to attend to that part of their patient population due to the gray area that encompasses the issue. The gray area all boils down to who should foot the bill and why. The medical providers have already forgotten that by not providing proper medical services to their non English speaking patients they are in direct violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (They must now be reminded of that law and forced to implement it. Otherwise, we are not going to be seeing bilingual doctors, assistants, and nurses helping patients on the floor anytime soon. We already have a whole generation of college students who grew up speaking a language other than English at home. Some of them have gone on to become a part of our medical landscape and can be considered to be some of the most highly successful practitioners of their time. Mainly because they are blessed to be able to speak 2 languages and therefore attend to the medical needs of 2 different races. Of all the immigrant races in America, the ones who benefit the most from these bilingual medical providers are the Spanish speaking immigrants. The medical doctors who manage to converse with the patient in his native tongue has the highest diagnosis success rate and has the utmost confidence of his patient when it comes to his medical needs. Language barriers pose the biggest hindrance in diagnosing medical illnesses. Dr Glen Flores (2006) explains that: “... many patients who need medical interpreters have no access to them. According to one study, no interpreter was used in 46 percent of emergency department cases involving patients with limited English proficiency. Few clinicians receive training in working with interpreters; only 23 percent of U.S. teaching hospitals provide any such training, and most of these make it optional” Learning to speak the language of a patient shows how much a medical service provider respects his patients right to communication and proper medical care. Blingualism in medical care is a two way street. The needs of the patient are properly met by the physician who manages to correctly diagnose his patient and in return, the physician is assured that the patient understand the kind of medical care he is providing for the illness, how it is to be administered, and why it is being administered. Patients get well, hospitals avoid malpractice suits. Everybody wins in the end. Some hospitals try to get around this language problem by hiring translators to aide the doctors in their patient diagnosis. However, the use of these interpreters have an additional cost for the hospital even though some hospitals manage to get funding from Medicare and MedicAid for such services. Such additional costs and funding problems can easily avoided if only the medical students are taught to become conversant in one foreign language while in school. Such as move has already been implemented by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (Science Daily, 2007). with much success. Their 3 semester Spanish language classes for Physician Assistant students has already been met with rave reviews by the patients and medical professionals alike. Patients in the hospital have been noted to be quite relaxed and more cooperative once they are face to face with an authoritative looking medical professional who speaks the same language as they do. How that happens is understandable. It is after all said that healing begins with the confidence that a patient has in his or her doctor. There are instances when medical professionals and their facilities accept federal funding. By accepting the money, they are bound by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. and as such, must provide for interpretation services as necessary. This is not an option, this is the the law. Eliza Barclay (2009) reported in her Washington Post article” Language Barriers Complicate Immigrants Medical Problems” that: “Some federal funding for interpretation services is available through Medicaid and the Childrens Health Insurance Program, state-run programs that serve the poor and children, respectively. But to obtain the money, states have to pitch in some of their own.” Medical hospitals in Maryland and California have not provided such translation services for their immigrant patients because they believe that the additional cost for such programs should be shouldered by the insurance companies specially since there is something like 110 foreign languages being spoken in the United States. American is a linguistically diverse country and our medical practitioners should make room for these patients linguistically just as our commercial product labels have done so for the benefit of the immigrants who purchase their products. The law provides for these immigrants right to proper medical care, the hospitals and medical professionals do not have the right to deprive them of that. That is not to say that the hospitals which provide for the translation services are actually delivering superb medical services to their immigrant non-English speaking clients either. The sheer length of time it takes to get a medical translator on-board during a medical emergency is already a disservice to the patient tantamount to medical neglect. According to Somnath Saha M.D. and Alicia Fernandez M.D. (2007), the presence of medical interpreters pose a totally different set of challenges for both the patient and doctor: “...compare the use of interpreters to “language concordant” interactions, i.e., those where doctor and patient speak the same language. The results are not surprising. Even in settings with highly qualified interpreters and physicians well trained to work with them, the mere presence of a “middleperson” in a doctor–patient interaction can have a negative impact. However, in our predominantly monolingual nation, we know that interpreters are necessary. We also know that most people who serve as interpreters are not highly qualified, and most physicians are not well trained to work with them.” When the medical translator is finally present at the scene of diagnosis, both the doctor and patient cannot really be confident that their messages are actually getting across to each other in the way that they originally mean to. The reason for the uncertainty is that the medical translators could become uncomfortable in using certain words as it could be a taboo word in the persons culture so he or she may use a replacement term for it. In such cases, it could change the whole diagnosis or perception of medical treatment in its overall context. Medical healing all starts with patient perception. A doctor must be able to instill the confidence that he understands what the patient is going through, has a clear grasp of his symptoms, and that he will be able to cure the patient. All of which require that he be able to effectively communicate his thoughts and actions to the patient. Further investigation by Somnath Saha M.D. and Alicia Fernandez M.D. (2007) shows that the presence of an interpreter at the scene diminishes that effect by at least 95%. Patients who have limited to no English speaking ability tend to shy away from medical offices until the very last minute mainly because they do not trust doctors who do not speak their language. People like Luisa Santiago (Martin, 2006) believe that medical doctors who do not speak Spanish can take care of her. She explains that, “They won’t take care of me,...I’d feel more comfortable going to the clinic if I spoke Spanish.” One reason that Santiago feels that way may rest on the fact that she will not be able to complete her medication regimen if she does not understand her doctors instructions. Or worse, if she misunderstands the instructions and does the opposite of what her doctors instructs. A situation which could result in the death of a patient. Due to the existence of the language barrier, there is now a blame game going on between the doctor and the patient regarding the quality of healthcare that is being administered. Administering proper healthcare to people who cannot understand what their specific medical process is a daunting task. Patients do not understand the doctor and vice versa. That is the life threatening situation that both parties now find themselves embroiled in and it is not a situation that can be swept under the rug. Attention should and must be paid towards improving the patient-doctor relationship of non-English speaking patients. In an interview by Science Daily (2011), Hector M. Gonzalez PhD, assistant professor of family medicine and public health at WSU Institute of Gerontology believes that, “Today, there are over 60 million Americans who speak languages other than English and that will rapidly grow in coming years. Thats a big market that savvy health care providers should not ignore." The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality acknowledges that health care disparity is on the rise in the United States and the primary cause is the language barrier. Hospitals and medical practitioners must be taken to task at this point and asked to do their part in at least lessening the effects of the language barrier. We cannot keep asking the patients, who spent their whole lives speaking a different language to learn English overnight. But they are part of our country now and as such, has become our responsibility. We are a country that prides itself in respecting diversity and human rights. Yet we ask our immigrants to stop being linguistically diverse once they come to us for help. Doctors must come to their senses and realize that by becoming multilingual, they will improve their medical practice and financial standing as they can then service more than just the needs of their English speaking patients. References Barclay, E. (2009 ). Language Barriers Complicate Immigrants Medical Problems, Washington Post. Retrieved July 23, 2011, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2009/04/20/AR2009042002466.html Boston University Medical Center (2010). Language barriers may play role in health care disparities, study finds, Science Daily. Retrieved July 23, 2011, from h ttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100928152020.htm David, M.D., R. A. & Rhee, B.A., M. (1998) The Impact of Language as a Barrier to Effective Health Care in an Underserved Urban Hispanic Community, volume 65:393-397 (issue 5 & 6). Retrieved July 23, 2011, from http://www.vdh.state.va.us/ohpp/clasact/documents/CLASact/ research3/13_David.pdf Flores, M.D., G. (2006). Language Barriers to Health Care in the United States, The New England Journal of Medicine, volume 355:229-231. Retrieved July 23, 2011, from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp058316#t=references Lee, PH.D., S. M. (2003). A review of language and other communication barriers in healthcare. Retrieved July 23, 2011, from http://www.hablamosjuntos.org/resources/pdf/SMLeeCommunication_ and_Health.pdf Martin, A. (2006). Language Barriers Hazardous to Health, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Retrieved July 23, 2011, from http://journalism.berkeley.edu/ngno/reports/language/healthissues.html Paquet, S. (2001). Towards Solving the Interdisciplinary Language Barrier Problem. Retrieved July 23, 2011, from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/dow0nload? doi=10.1.1.94.8115&rep=rep1&type=pdf Saha, S. & Fernandez, A. (2007) Language Barriers in Health Care, J Gen Intern Med, volume 22:281–2 (issue 2). Retrieved July 23, 2011, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2078543/ University of California - Irvine (2007). Language Barriers Adversely Impact Healthcare Quality, Science Daily. Retrieved July 23, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071113132304.htm Wayne State University - Office of the Vice President for Research (2011). Speaking the same language means better healthcare quality, study finds, Science Daily. Retrieved July 23, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110120151638.htm Read More