• K Casey Lion, Beth E Ebel, Sarah Rafton, Chuan Zhou, Patty Hencz, and Rita Mangione-Smith.
• Department of Pediatrics and Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, Washington; and casey.lion@seattlechildrens.org.
• Pediatrics. 2015 Mar 1; 135 (3): e709-16.

BackgroundLanguage barriers are associated with poor health care outcomes, and barriers exist for timely in-person interpretation. Although available on-demand, telephonic interpretation remains underutilized. This study evaluates whether a quality improvement (QI) intervention was associated with rates of interpretation and parent-reported language service use at a children's hospital.MethodsThe QI intervention was developed by a multidisciplinary team and included provider education, electronic alerts, standardized dual-handset telephones, and 1-touch dialing in all hospital rooms. Interpreter use was tracked for 12 months before, 5 months during, and 12 months after the intervention. Weekly rates of interpretation per limited English proficient (LEP) patient-day were evaluated by using segmented linear regression. LEP parents were surveyed about professional interpretation and delays in care. Responses before, during, and after the intervention were compared by using the χ(2) test for trend.ResultsTelephonic interpretation rates increased by 53% after the intervention (baseline 0.38 per patient-day, increased 0.20 [0.13-0.28]). Overall (telephonic and in-person) interpretation increased by 54% (baseline 0.96, increased by 0.51 [0.38-0.64]). Parent-reported interpreter use improved, including more frequent use of professional interpreters (53.3% before, 71.8% during, 69.3% after, P trend = .001), less frequent use of ad hoc interpreters (52.4% before, 38.1% during, 41.4% after, P trend = .03), and fewer interpretation-related delays in care (13.3% before, 7.9% during, 6.0% after, P trend = .01).ConclusionsThis QI intervention was associated with increased telephonic interpreter use and improved parent-reported use of professional language services. This is a promising approach to deliver safe, timely, and equitable care for the growing population of LEP children and families.Copyright © 2015 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

21 keywords...

hide…