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OverviewThe Impact of Language Barriers on Health Care and Legal Protections for Limited English Speaking PatientsAbout 32 million people in the United States, 13.8 % of the population, speak a language other than English at home. A recent study of public and private teaching hospitals found that more than 11% of patients required the use of interpreter services. In some areas, the number of non-English speaking patients is much higher. At San Francisco General Hospital, one in four inpatients, and 60-70 percent of outpatients require interpreters. During the 1980s, 9.5 million newcomers migrated to America from over 100 countries. 80% of this group came from outside Europe, the traditional source of U.S. immigrants. As the sources of immigration have changed, the number of languages for which interpreters are required also has grown exponentially. In some cities, residents speak more than one hundred separate languages and dialects. Despite the growing need for linguistically appropriate health care services, many health care providers have done very little to overcome language barriers to health care. Recent interviews conducted by the National Health Law Program with state minority health care officers confirm that health care providers largely rely upon untrained bilingual staff, such as janitors or food service workers, and friends and family members of patients for interpreting. In addition, fewer than one fourth of hospitals provide any training for their staff in interpreting. Patient care has have often suffered needlessly as a result. Children have been asked to interpret for parents about sexual matters and spousal abuse. Non-English speaking patients sometime wait for hours for treatment due to the lack of available interpreters. Language barriers have caused avoidable delays in diagnosis and treatment, the use of needless and expensive tests and patient failures to comply with doctor's orders. U.S. health care providers have a legal obligation to offer interpreting services to non-English-speaking patients under a variety of federal, state, and local laws. These laws, which are being reviewed as part of a National Health Law Program-Kaiser Family Foundation Project on U.S. Laws on Language Barriers and Access to Health Care, include the following: | |||||
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| As with the rest of DiversityRx, this section is a work in
progress and we welcome information on other efforts, programs, and reports
that will expand upon the information offered here. Please
let us know if you have other examples to include here. | ||||||
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DiversityRx is sponsored by: |
 The National Conference of State Legislatures |
 Resources for Cross Cultural Health Care |
 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation | |||
