Opportunity

Patients whose primary language is not English are at a higher risk of adverse health care outcomes in the United States. Language discordance can also contribute to misdiagnosis, medication errors, low quality of care, and decreased patient satisfaction. Professional interpreters help produce better clinical outcomes than ad hoc interpreters such as family members. Yet, among surveyed labor and delivery staff providing direct patient care, 95 percent reported using family as interpreters. At Penn Medicine, chart review suggested that interpreter services may be underused and/or not consistently documented. One underlying factor is a lack of understanding around the process for requesting interpreters.

Intervention

In collaboration with a team based in the Department of Family Medicine, we are looking into ways to promote the use of interpreter services at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Our goal is to bring the information clinicians need to the forefront for easy and efficient use, resulting in a safer and more comfortable interaction for clinicians and patients. We are exploring adding a non-interruptive banner in the electronic health record that would inform clinicians that a patient's primary language isn’t English, lay out the different ways of accessing interpreters, and explain how to document interpreter use. We are also looking at incorporating automatic documentation into the History and Physical note on the patient chart.

Impact

A pilot intervention is in the planning stages. Results will be added here when available.