The Latino Community is the second-fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States. Although statistics are changing quickly, many Latinos speak English less than very well, making them Limited English-Proficient (LEP). More specifically, 40% of the nearly 25 million LEPs identify as Latino/x.
This language barrier problem in healthcare increases the cultural gap for those who come to this country looking for better opportunities and quality of life for the population of Latinos in the United States.
The Latino and Hispanic Communities are diverse in many ways, but, as a group, they face similar obstacles, such as poor health outcomes and low access to healthcare. These challenges in healthcare communication also bring out many issues that lead to discrimination against Latinos in healthcare settings. These issues include:
Misspelled last names that contribute to patient misidentification errors and delays in receiving health care; the absence of information sources in Spanish; not having interpreters at hospitals; and a general lack of Spanish language services negatively affect this LEP population, who often feel discriminated against and left out by staff workers and the system.
My Name is My Identity
Many from the Latino Community have experienced problems during patient registration due to confusion about their names. Most Latinos have two last names – one from their father and one from their mother. Although both last names are part of their legal name, the first one, from the father, is used the most.
As a result of this cultural difference that many healthcare systems have not acknowledged, these names are often recorded differently across healthcare facilities, delaying the process when receiving medical attention and resulting in misidentification.
According to an exploratory 2015 study by the BMC Health Services Research Journal in North Carolina, participants reported many challenges with registering their two last names.
Many healthcare facilities do not have their Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems set for multiple last names, resulting in hyphenated names or choosing one of two last names.
This results in two problems – at the healthcare level, for example, patients have difficulty locating their patient records and finding medical appointments registered under only one of their two last names.
At the cultural level, Latinos are forced to adapt to rules that erase part of their identity, like the continuous game of figuring out under what name their provider has sent their prescription to the pharmacy.
No Info & No Translation for the Latino Community
Navigating the healthcare system in the US has proven to be tricky for Latinos for even simpler tasks, such as checking in, making them feel unwelcomed by the healthcare system.
The lack of Spanish-speaking staff, unavailable or poorly translated forms, and slow or absent certified healthcare interpreters are severe barriers to quality care.
In the BMC Health Services Research Journal post, Calo et al. report that not having language services in front-office medical settings negatively affect Latinos since it is usual that when going to a specialist, not a single person in the office’s staff speaks Spanish, so they can’t attend to the patient, and the appointment is lost. This issue is reflected at the front office and throughout the health system.
These issues result in very long waiting times, poor attention, and a lack of trust in the healthcare system, increasing health disparities for Latinos in general and even more for those who are LEP Patients. But there is a simple cure to this issue – offering comprehensive quality language services.
This means adapting EHR to accommodate Latinos and other immigrants, training all client-serving staff on cultural awareness and how to work with interpreters, providing translated documentation, and increasing access to qualified medical interpreters at no cost to the patient.
Offering quality language services can be easy. If you want to get started with this process and learn about our Eight-step Language Service Implementation Plan, visit our website www.culturizingaccess.com and reach out to us at info@culturizingaccess.com.
You can also start the work by completing our LANGUAGE SERVICES STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION PLANNER.
