Abstract
Addressing language and cultural nuance is required to improve the quality of care among all patients. The tenth version of the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care (CLAS) recommends implementing ongoing assessments to integrate specific actions into measurement and continuous quality improvement activities. To this end, we have created the Interventional Cultural and Language Assistance Program (ICLAP). As part of ICLAP, we conducted a cross-sectional needs assessment survey with 564 consecutive patients receiving outpatient Positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging at a comprehensive cancer center in the five most prevalent languages of New York City: English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Arabic. The purpose of this study is to describe the language assistance characteristics and needs of a sample of patients receiving care in the cancer center. We examined the relationship between race, ethnicity, birthplace, communication and language assistance characteristics and the satisfaction with the care received. Our results show that race and ethnicity, birthplace, cultural beliefs, language assistance, and communication characteristics were all factors associated with patients’ satisfaction with care, illustrating that there is an unmet need among cancer patients to have cultural and linguistic sensitive services.
Highlights
The ability to provide patient-centered cancer care to all patients is intimately tied to linguistically and culturally competent communication [1,2]
A cross-sectional tablet-based needs assessment survey was conducted with 564 cancer patients waiting for an outpatient imaging procedure between January 2016 to May 2016, as part of the Interventional Cultural and Language Assistance Program (ICLAP) at our comprehensive cancer center
Three quarters of the sample were born in United States, almost 6% were born in Europe, 4% in Eastern Asia and the Philippines, and 4% in Latin America and the Hispanic Caribbean
Summary
The ability to provide patient-centered cancer care to all patients is intimately tied to linguistically and culturally competent communication [1,2]. The Nuclear Medicine (NM) community, has not historically considered communication a centerpiece of its delivery model. We assume this is a historical relic of the creation of the specialty. The majority of the other NM procedures over the several decades were considered diagnostic imaging and communication was generally delegated to the referring physician. The complexity of NM studies, and the need for communication skill has grown considerably, as evidenced by the large number of cancer patients being diagnosed and followed with Positron Emission Tomography (PET/CT) in the outpatient setting. Best practices for interacting with patients being evaluated with advanced diagnostics has not grown to match the pace of the increased time and complexity of the services rendered. It is certainly appropriate that the Nuclear Medicine community rethink its historic precedent with regard to communication
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
