Authors: Mary Lindholm J Lee Hargraves Warren J Ferguson George Reed
Publish Date: 2012/04/18
Volume: 27, Issue: 10, Pages: 1294-1299
Abstract
The population of persons seeking medical care is linguistically diverse in the United States Language barriers can adversely affect a patient’s ability to explain their symptoms Among hospitalized patients these barriers may lead to higher readmission rates and longer hospitalizations Trained interpreters help overcome communication barriers however interpreter usage among patients is suboptimalWe analyzed the rates of interpretation at admission and discharge of all LEP patients admitted to a tertiary care hospital over a threeyear period We calculated length of stay in days and as log of LOS We also examined 30day readmission Using multivariable regression models we explored differences among patients who received interpretation at admission discharge or both controlling for patient characteristics including age illness severity language and genderOf the 3071 patients included in the study 39 received language interpretation on both admission and discharge date Patients who did not receive professional interpretation at admission or both admission/discharge had an increase in their LOS of between 075 and 147 days compared to patients who had an interpreter on both day of admission and discharge P 002 Patients receiving interpretation at admission and/or discharge were less likely than patients receiving no interpretation to be readmitted with 30 daysPoster presentation at North American Primary Care Research Group Annual meeting NAPCRG October 2023 2007 Vancouver British Columbia Oral presentation at NAPCRG 2009 Annual meeting November 1518 2009 Montreal Quebec Oral presentation at 2010 International Medical Interpreters Assoc annual meeting 9/4/2010 Boston MA
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