Limited English Proficiency Should Not Be a Barrier to Health Care
According to a federal mandate, all federal and state officials are required to offer language assistance for patients with limited English proficiency. Limited English Proficiency (LEP.gov) was created in response to Executive Order 131666, Title VI, and the Title VI regulations regarding language access to assist individuals in obtaining "language services for federal agencies, recipients of federal funds, users of federal programs and federally assisted programs, and other stakeholders. " LEP.gov provides a wealth on information and resources on its website.
In an recent editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, "a study of interpreter-caused medical errors . . . found that 77% of those errors involved nonprofessional interpreters. For the 50 million people in the U.S. who don't speak English at home, as well as the 22 million who speak only limited English, hospitals and trips to the doctor's office present difficult challenges. For these patients and their families, communication between doctors and patients about treatments, symptoms, and potential risks is often strained. WebMD reports that, in many cases, school-aged children have to step in as interpreters because the hospital does not have adequate interpretation services.
According to the U.S. Office of Management and Business, the estimated $4.00 cost per patient to provide adequate language services would be considerably less that the cost of unnecessary hospitalizations, screening tests, and treatments. Ultimately, providing interpretation services would save healthcare costs and provide better health care.