Centers offer ways to bridge language, cultural differences

Community health centers find that hiring bilingual staff and installing telephone translation lines are key to providing the best care.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. July 7, 2008.

Washington -- The Upper Cardozo Health Center, located in an economically and ethnically diverse section of Washington, D.C., has enrolled more than 17,000 low-income individuals, and most are non-English speakers. These patients, who hail from more than 90 countries, still receive a full range of primary and preventive health services.

Across the river in Virginia, the Community Health Network in Fairfax is providing similar care for a similarly diverse population.

How do they do it?

More physicians than ever would like to know. Encountering patients whose grasp of English is less than proficient is not unusual in medical practices. More than 55 million people in the nation, or nearly 20% of the population, speak a language other than English at home. And more than 24 million residents speak English less than "very well" and may be considered limited English proficient, or LEP, according to Steve Hitov, managing attorney of the National Health Law Program's Washington, D.C., office. He moderated a June 16 briefing on the importance of language services for quality health care.

The National Health Law Program also released a report, "Serving Patients with Limited English Proficiency," that resulted from a 2007 survey of 260 members of the National Assn. of Community Health Centers.

"Eighty-one percent of general internists treat LEP patients frequently -- 54% at least once a day or a few times a week," Hitov said.