Advancing Equity in Emergency Department Discharge Communication for Spanish-Speaking Families

Area of Science:

• Health Communication
• Health Equity
• Emergency Medicine

Background:

• Spanish-speaking patients face communication barriers in healthcare settings, particularly in emergency departments (EDs).
• Discharge instructions are often inadequate for Spanish-speaking families, leading to health disparities.
• Family experience data highlighted existing communication gaps with Spanish-speaking populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To optimize equitable communication for Spanish-speaking families in the ED.
• To implement language-congruent discharge instruction videos for common ED conditions.
• To enhance awareness of interpreter needs to mitigate health disparities.

Main Methods:

• A multidisciplinary team developed interventions to improve communication with Spanish-speaking families.
• International Classification of Disease, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes were used to establish baselines for discharge video relevance.
• Key metrics included communication scores, discharge video utilization, 72-hour return visits, and length of stay (LOS).

Main Results:

• The percentage of Spanish-speaking families receiving adequate information increased from 56% to 70.6%, improving the equity gap from 10% to -3%.
• English-speaking families' satisfaction remained stable at 66.7%.
• Discharge video order rates rose from 0% to 27.6% with no significant changes in return visits or LOS.

Conclusions:

• A multifaceted approach integrating awareness of language barriers and effective communication tools enhanced communication equity.
• Standardized, understandable, and linguistically congruent discharge instructions improved health care communication.
• Increased emphasis on recognizing language barriers is crucial for advancing health equity in clinical settings.