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Creating a Survey to Assess Interpreter Utilization at Rhode Island Hospital

Creating a Survey to Assess Interpreter Utilization at Rhode Island Hospital. October 8th, 2008 Ben Brown Alpert Medical School, MD 2012 nriAHEC Grantee, 2008. Goals.  Short-term

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Creating a Survey to Assess Interpreter Utilization at Rhode Island Hospital

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  1. Creating a Survey to Assess Interpreter Utilization at Rhode Island Hospital October 8th, 2008 Ben Brown Alpert Medical School, MD 2012 nriAHEC Grantee, 2008

  2. Goals  Short-term • Assess clinician attitudes (MD, RN, SW, etc.) toward utilization of interpreters for limited English proficiency (LEP) patients. • Identify bilingual clinicians to build a database of providers with foreign language skills (as required by RI law). Long-term • Develop an ongoing series of targeted workshops to train clinicians in the ethical and logistical issues involved in treating LEP patients and to increase utilization of professional interpreters. • Assess the language skills of self-identified bilingual clinicians and develop a network of such practitioners to act as resources for colleagues and for LEP patients.

  3. Why undertake this study? • Demographics • 46 million Americans do not speak English as a first language. • 21 million do not speak enough English to navigate a monolingual setting such as a hospital. •  Ethical issues • Interpreters facilitate higher quality communication. • Professional interpreters help avoid ethical pitfalls (esp. confidentiality). • Utilization a problem • In spite of strong reasons to do so, studies suggest that clinicians often do not utilize professional interpreters. • We need to know why so we can fix what's not working.

  4. Process • Develop a comprehensive survey • Obtain administrative approval • Pilot the survey • Pilot post-survey analysis and interventions (workshop for clinicians, database of bilingual practitioners) • Broader implementation of survey and interventions • Follow-up publications and development of new initiatives based on these experiences (the cycle continues...)

  5. Findings / Results • Still in the early stages: awaiting administrative approval • Survey instrument has been created which will provide us with a range of useful information, much of which will be particularly helpful in targeting future interventions. • The questionnaire is also flexible enough that other institutions may apply it to their particular situations.

  6. Conclusion This project is ambitious but necessary in order to provide better health care to all Rhode Islanders. We look forward to continuing to work on this intervention and to all the new doors it will open for the patients of Rhode Island Hospital.

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