Why Hospitals Must Provide Translation Services
Did you know that 24.5 million Americans (8% of the population) require language assistance to access social and medical services?
However, according to the Medical Doctor, only 23% of teaching hospitals in U.S. medical schools train physicians to work with interpreters, and this training is usually optional.
So where is the disconnect? Why are hospitals not providing the language access solutions required by federal law?
Federal civil rights laws state that hospitals must provide all people with equal access to care, regardless of “race, color, or national origin.” That’s the phrase used in Title VI, the first law pertaining to professional interpreters. Also, in Executive Order 13166, President Bill Clinton implicitly stated any organization receiving federal funds—like Medicaid or Medicare—must provide “meaningful language access.” If they don’t, facilities are supposed to lose those funds.
But this doesn’t always happen.
Chris Carter, president of the Association of Language Companies, told slate.com that hospitals rarely become proactively compliant:
“Unfortunately, member companies of the ALC have noticed in recent years that healthcare organizations usually wait until they are audited by the [Department of Justice] and found non-compliant with [Affordable Care Act] Section 1557 or other laws before they shift from ad hoc service provision to implementing an organized Language Access Plan.”
Why aren't healthcare organizations implementing organized Language Access Plans?
There are a few reasons why many organizations are failing to implement language access solutions:
1. Lack of regulatory awareness - Hospital administrators face obstacles translating complicated laws and regulations surrounding language access into day-to-day practice for staff, especially when they already struggle to effectively communicate internal policies. A lack of regulatory awareness forces staff to work in a gray area of compliance, possibly putting their institution at risk.
2. Lack of medical Spanish credential exams - Hospital staff who speak to patients in languages other than English must demonstrate that they are able to “effectively, accurately, and impartially communicate directly with individuals with limited English proficiency”. In addition to an effective credentialing exam, healthcare executives also desire more meaningful post-exam support for their personnel.
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3. Lack of courses specifically for medical Spanish - While there is no shortage of online language training, most courses are not designed for the healthcare domain. Besides the lack of authentic medical context, current offerings often do not adequately deliver the cultural competence involved in serving diverse patient communities. More-over, online language courses rarely support the development of the spoken language skills that are most critical for patient care, rendering these platforms inadequate for applied use in real-world provider-patient scenarios.
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But what does an "organized Language Access Plan" actually look like?
Serving LEP patients involves much more than deploying interpreters.
A true language access plan involves training healthcare professionals and empowering them to become Qualified Bilingual Staff, so that they can provide better care to LEP patients, and provide language access from inside the organization.
CANOPY is your one-stop solution for breaking through medical language barriers to provide the best care to your patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). Canopy offers a suite of tools for healthcare institutions to invest in recognizing, credentialing, and supporting their bilingual healthcare professionals.
CanopyLearn and CanopyCredential are the #1 medical Spanish course and credential exam in the U.S., designed specifically for healthcare professionals. Unlike interpretation service vendors, Canopy is not in the business of selling interpreter minutes to hospitals. Instead, we enable healthcare facilities to develop their core competencies, reusable assets and scalable capacities through our suite of language access tools.
With over 40+ medical specialties and the most flexible e-learning platform of its kind, Canopy empowers physicians and staff to improve patient care while learning on their own time.
Sources: Slate.com