Health Care Leaders Discuss Growing Concern: Miscommunication

Language Line Services, Banner Health, and Arizona State University host Forum on Improving Quality Delivery of Health Care to Arizona’s Increasingly Diverse Population

Phoenix, AZ — (February 23, 2007) — Health care leaders expressed their concerns about Arizona’s ability to effectively serve the state’s growing population of limited English speaking residents at a health care language access forum yesterday. Hosted by Language Line Services, the leading provider of language services, Banner Health, and Arizona State University, the forum explored the impact of language diversity on the delivery of health care services at Arizona hospitals. The forum featured public health, medical and cultural diversity experts from across the country and represented one of the most in-depth public examinations of the effect of limited English proficient (LEP) patients on the Arizona health care system.

“In a health care setting, communication mistakes can be costly and deadly,” said Louis Provenzano, President and Chief Operating Officer of Language Line Services. “Fortunately, the common theme that emerged from this forum was that new services and technologies are available to put Arizona health care facilities in a position to more effectively communicate with their limited English speaking patients.”

With immigration issues commanding national attention, the forum focused on the significant challenges of miscommunication between medical caregivers and LEP patients and what can be done to address the issue. “Partnership is the key,” said Sandi Cimino, Director of Service Excellence with Banner Health. “With Language Line Services, Banner Health, and Arizona State University working together, we can create greater understanding of the importance of language and culture in the delivery of safe, quality health care in Arizona.”

According to U.S. Census data, every 31 seconds an individual speaking little if any English enters the United States and in Arizona one in four residents speaks a language other than English at home. “Arizona’s population continues to become more linguistically diverse, making it more critical than ever to address the language barriers to quality health care and develop solutions for removing them,” said Megan Pepple, nursing student, Arizona State University.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has long required those who receive federal funding to provide the same level of access to services for limited English speaking patients as they do for those who speak English. An Executive Order “Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency,” issued in 2000, attempted to clarify and strengthen the language access implications of Title VI, but it has left gaps in structure and enforcement. Without specific standards or guidance, hospitals and other facilities have responded to this requirement in dramatically different ways, with some offering in-house interpreters combined with over-the-phone language interpreting services, and others offering much less. Even among those with formal interpretation services, the level of quality varies greatly.

“In a cultural melting pot like Arizona, language can be a major barrier to fair and equitable access to health care,” said Cimino. “Recognizing the importance of quality interpreting in medical diagnosis, Banner Health has not only made it a top priority to continuously enhance our own procedures for communicating with our limited-English patients, but has also made an effort to educate other health care providers about language access best practices to improve the delivery of health care services throughout Arizona.”

In addition to best practices for implementing quality language services, presenters at the forum offered findings and assessments of the impact of growing limited English speaking populations on health care quality, including reviews of how hospitals are responding to the language challenge, and how state and federal requirements are impacting health care facility operations. The forum also reviewed current hospital interpreting standards and discussed the need for national guidelines for language access programs.

“With the exceptions of a handful of innovative hospital systems, language access programs in our nation’s hospitals are on life support - they are receiving a great deal of attention, but their condition is not improving,” said Provenzano. “This Arizona forum was an excellent first step, but we need to focus on creating clear standards for formal language access programs, so that everyone who walks through the doors of a hospital can feel confident that they will be understood, and that they will receive the care they need.”

The Arizona State University, Banner Health, and Language Line Services hosted forum was held at Arizona State University’s West Campus in Phoenix, AZ. For more information about this forum (and future forums like it) and the featured presenters, please contact Jeanette Anders, Language Line Services’ Health Care Director, at janders@languageline.com or 1-800-388-4219.

About Language Line Services

As the leading provider of interpreting services to health care organizations throughout the United States, Language Line Services trains and certifies its interpreters specifically for health care situations to insure quality interpretations in medical diagnosis, treatment and preventative care. The company delivers a dynamic suite of solutions spanning phone and video interpretation, document translation, interactive software-based translation, and interpreter training and certification programs, enabling clients to communicate with customers in their preferred language. Through its leading-edge technology infrastructure, Language Line Services delivers support for over 170 unique languages to its industry-leading portfolio of clients across markets including health care, financial services, government, telecom, packaged goods, insurance services, travel, and more. For information on how Language Line Services is helping clients achieve their strategic multicultural marketing and regulatory compliance objectives, call 1-800-752-6096 or visit www.languageline.com .