Language-Concordant Health Care: Implementation of a Bilingual Competency Program

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Linguistic Competency in Healthcare
• Health Equity

Background:

• Language proficiency is crucial for equitable, high-quality care for non-English language preference (NELP) patients.
• Existing healthcare systems often face challenges in addressing the linguistic needs of NELP patients.
• A Bilingual Competency Program (BCP) was implemented to enhance care delivery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the impact of a BCP on patient-centered care for NELP patients.
• To assess the effectiveness of a structured program for verifying healthcare professionals' language proficiency.
• To improve the overall healthcare experience for patients with limited English proficiency.

Main Methods:

• A quality improvement initiative at an urban cancer center implemented the BCP.
• Staff self-assessed language skills using the Interagency Language Roundtable Scale for Healthcare (ILR-H).
• Proficiency was verified through self-attestation for 'excellent' ratings and oral testing for 'very good' or 'good' ratings.

Main Results:

• 935 employees enrolled, representing 1,087 language entries across 67 languages.
• 66.3% of language entries (721/1,087) were verified for proficiency.
• Most participants were in patient-facing (71.8%) and clinical (68.7%) roles.

Conclusions:

• The BCP effectively enhances linguistic competency through validated assessments and evidence-based methods.
• This program addresses limitations of previous language proficiency initiatives.
• It establishes a new standard for improving health equity, care quality, and outcomes for NELP patients.