Abstract
This paper aims to provide a description of the need for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) for Limited English Proficient (LEP) patients, an identification of how the lack of CLAS for LEP patients can compromise patient safety and healthcare quality, and discuss barriers to the provision of CLAS.
Highlights
Could this have happened at your hospital? The following scenario, which takes place in a fictional U.S hospital emergency room, was adapted from the DVD, Breaking down the Language Barrier: Translating Limited English Proficiency into Practice produced by the U.S Department of Justice Civil Rights Division (1)
This study found that a greater percentage of Limited English Proficient (LEP) patients experienced physical harm vs. English-speaking patients, 49.1% and 29.5% respectively
The Patient Services Coordinator (PSC) pulled out a language identification card and asked the patient to point to the language he spoke
Summary
The nurse calls her and asks if she can interpret for the patient The patient states his problem, but the computer technician, who speaks Thai, cannot understand him. Patient safety and healthcare quality In Unequal Treatment, the importance of linguistic concordance to patient-provider communication was emphasized as a means to create an accurate medical and social history and assessment of the patient’s cultural health beliefs (9). Barriers to providing CLAS Healthcare organizations and providers cite several barriers to providing CLAS, such as staff have no means of identifying patients who need CLAS before they arrive at the hospital; cost/reimbursement concerns, lack of tools and training resources, lack of community-level data, and staff generally feel uncomfortable asking patients to provide information about their primary language (19). In 2002, the Office of Management and Budget estimated that the cost of requiring payers to cover the cost of interpreters would only be about $4 per patient for ED, inpatient, outpatient, and dental visits (19,20)
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