Examining Interpreter Services to Better Characterize Areas for Quality Improvement

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Access and Equity
• Medical Interpretation Services
• Health Disparities

Background:

• Professional medical interpreters (PMIs) are essential for Limited English-proficient (LEP) patients' understanding of surgical care.
• Challenges faced by PMIs in surgical settings are underexplored, potentially leading to disenfranchisement of vulnerable populations.
• Current policies and quality control for language access in healthcare require investigation to ensure patient comprehension.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the perspectives of medical interpreters on language access and existing policies.
• To identify specific challenges encountered by PMIs during the translation of surgical care.
• To explore potential interventions for improving the quality of interpretation services.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study employing snowball sampling to recruit 20 medical interpreters across US hospitals.
• Data collected through semi-structured 30-60 minute Zoom interviews, transcribed and anonymized.
• Analysis conducted using MAXQDA software with an iteratively adjusted codebook.

Main Results:

• Theme 1: Access to patient information and presession meetings with clinicians improved interpretation quality and role clarity.
• Theme 2: Variable clinician knowledge on working with interpreters correlated with negative patient care outcomes.
• Theme 3: Difficulty in verifying patient understanding highlighted the need for better-resourced departments to mitigate challenges and ensure consistent quality.

Conclusions:

• Suboptimal utilization of medical interpreters adversely affects the health outcomes of LEP patients.
• Gaps exist in clinician knowledge and formal training regarding effective collaboration with PMIs.
• Development of guidelines, curricula, and improved workflows for language services is essential for equitable patient care.