English Proficiency In Health Care Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the English Proficiency In Health Care. Answer: Barriers and enablers to accessing care in patients who do not speak English Non-English speaking patients always remain at health disadvantages due to lesser access to fewer preventive services and access to care compared to English speaking patients. Language difference between care provider and patient, and the increase in the number of patients with limited English language proficiency is one of the major barrier to effective and quality care. Linguistic barrier contribute to misunderstanding among patients in the area of diagnosis, treatment and options to access care. This limitation in English language proficiency also increases the risk for adverse events in such patients compared to English speaking patients. They face difficulty in understanding instruction and thereby remain oblivious about the care options. Research has shown that patients with limited English language proficiency have greater risk of line infections, surgical delays, readmission in hospitals and longer hospital stays due to poor and timely access of health care service. The inter actions with health care staffs is seriously affected in such cases and worse health outcome is reported due to limited access to health care and fewer health care visits (Calo et al., 2015). Gap in language and communications in health care staffs also contribute to barriers in accessing care for limited English speaking patients. Evidence points out that when patients and physician do not speak same language,, effective communication process is affected contributing to poor access to high quality care. In case of an area with high percentage of limited English proficiency patient, hospital must provided patients with access to professional interpreters to decrease readmission rates and promotes time care and treatment of patients. Such situation also creates challenges for health care system because of rise in communication barriers due to language gap and this also affects the capability of the health care professional to provide high quality patients centered care (Karliner, Prez-Stable, Gregorich, 2017). Due to the increase in diversity of the patients population in terms of language and culture, more attention to mitigating language and cultural barrier is likely to act as enabler to improve access to care in patients who do not speak English. Access to professional interpreters is most effective in address language barrier in care delivery and improving communication between patients and care providers. Interpreters ensure that patients can use resources in a better way. Study also shows that professional interpreters decrease length of stay and rehospitalization rates in limited English speaking patients (Basu, Costa Jain, 2017). Poor language concordance between care provider and patient also contribute to dilemmas for physician in the delivery of care. Effective communication and employing other strategies to communicate with such patients also becomes difficult due to time constraints/ acuity of situations and ease of availability of translation aid. Physicians can overcome these difficulties if they get appropriate support from health care organization to understand patients concerns and make the right judgment. Team based approach an open line of communication may also mitigate the difficulties faced by non-English speaking patients (Parsons et al., 2014). As language and culture are closely linked to each other and they also results in differential access to case, focusing on cultural competency skills in health care staffs is also critical to improve accessibility to health care service (Betancourt et al., 2016). References Basu, G., Costa, V. P., Jain, P. (2017). Clinicians Obligations to Use Qualified Medical Interpreters When Caring for Patients with Limited English Proficiency.AMA Journal of Ethics,19(3), 245. Betancourt, J.R., Green, A.R., Carrillo, J.E. and Owusu Ananeh-Firempong, I.I., 2016. Defining cultural competence: a practical framework for addressing racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care.Public health reports. Calo, W. A., Cubillos, L., Breen, J., Hall, M., Rojas, K. F., Mooneyham, R., ... Garcia, N. (2015). Experiences of Latinos with limited English proficiency with patient registration systems and their interactions with clinic front office staff: an exploratory study to inform community-based translational research in North Carolina.BMC health services research,15(1), 570. Karliner, L. S., Prez-Stable, E. J., Gregorich, S. E. (2017). Convenient access to professional interpreters in the hospital decreases readmission rates and estimated hospital expenditures for patients with limited English proficiency.Medical care,55(3), 199-206. Parsons, J. A., Baker, N. A., Smith-Gorvie, T., Hudak, P. L. (2014). To Get byor get help? A qualitative study of physicians challenges and dilemmas when patients have limited English proficiency.BMJ open,4(6), e004613.