Having interpreters on hand, even by telephone, can help doctors and hospitals take better care of patients who do not speak English well, an expert said on Tuesday.
Not being able to communicate effectively with patients harms their care and can also end up costing everyone more, argued Dr. Joseph Betancourt, the director of the Disparities Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
“If you have a Spanish-speaking patient, and they come in with a problem but you don’t speak Spanish, you won’t be able to effectively communicate. So instead of talking to him, you send for an MRI, which will cost $800,” Betancourt said at an American Hospital Association membership meeting. “If you had an interpreter, the patient can explain what’s wrong, and you would have spent half of what you did on the MRI.”
Massachusetts General Hospital has trained health professionals to be more sensitive to stereotyping and to communicate with patients more effectively. The hospital set up Interpreter Phones on Poles – portable telephone connections to interpreters. The system has cut down on travel time for interpreters and allowed nurses to feel free to check on patients.
Betancourt said that the hospital also employed bilingual health coaches, who reminded patients about appointments and kept them on track with their medication.
“It’s difficult to bridge the health gap in a 15-minute doctor’s visit; it’s even harder when a doctor can’t understand you,” Betancourt said. “We need to better train our health professionals, but programs like the health coach will help address the language barrier.”
The Health and Human Services Department announced an initiative last week to reduce health disparities. The recommendations included hiring local community health workers and conducting comparative-effectiveness studies on the treatment of various conditions among minority populations.
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