• Mark J Fagan, Joseph A Diaz, Steven E Reinert, Christopher N Sciamanna, and Dylan M Fagan.
• Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brown Medical School, Providence, RI, USA. MFagan@lifespan.org
• J Gen Intern Med. 2003 Aug 1; 18 (8): 634-8.

ObjectiveTo determine the impact of interpretation method on outpatient visit length.DesignTime-motion study.SettingHospital-based outpatient teaching clinic.ParticipantsPatients presenting for scheduled outpatient visits.Measurements And Main ResultsOver a 6-week study period, a research assistant recorded the following information for consecutive patient visits: patient age, gender and insurance type; type of interpreter used (none, hospital interpreter, telephone interpreter or patient-supplied interpreter); scheduled visit length; provider type (nurse practitioner; attending physician; resident in postgraduate year 1, 2 or 3, or medical student); provider gender; amount of time the patient spent in the examination room with the provider (provider time); and total time the patient spent in the clinic from check-in to checkout (clinic time). When compared to patients not requiring an interpreter, patients using some form of interpreter had longer mean provider times (32.4 minutes [min] vs 28.0 min, P <.001) and clinic times (93.6 min vs 82.4 min, P =.002). Compared to patients not requiring an interpreter, patients using a telephone interpreter had significantly longer mean provider times (36.3 min vs 28.0 min, P <.001) and clinic times (99.9 min vs 82.4 min, P =.02). Similarly, patients using a patient-supplied interpreter had longer mean provider times (34.4 min vs 28.0 min, P <.001) and mean clinic times (92.8 min vs 82.4 min, P =.027). In contrast, patients using a hospital interpreter did not have significantly different mean provider times (26.8 min vs 28.0 min, P =.51) or mean clinic times (91.0 min vs 82.4 min, P =.16) than patients not requiring an interpreter.ConclusionIn our setting, telephone and patient-supplied interpreters were associated with longer visit times, but full-time hospital interpreters were not.

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