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Language matters: Variation in surgical readmissions across non-English language subgroups and hospitals
Brittany M Dacier1, Jesus Mejia2, Alyssa N Jones3
1Center for Surgery and Public Health, Department of Surgery, Mass General Brigham, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Surgery, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA.
Background:
Patients with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) face poorer surgical outcomes, yet language-access capacity varies by hospital.
Objective:
Compare 7-day readmission after common surgeries among adult patients with LEP at Language Serving Hospitals (LSH) and non-LSH, stratified by Spanish, Common Non-English, Non-Spanish (NENS) and Rare NENS Languages using the New Jersey State Inpatient Database.
Results:
34,342 adult surgical patients were discharged from LSH with 2.5% readmitted compared to 5.0% of those from non-LSH. Patients from LSH who spoke Spanish, (aOR 0.46, 95% CI 0.40-0.54), Common NENS (aOR 0.49, 95% CI 0.31-0.79), and Rare NENS Languages (aOR 0.50, 95% CI 0.40-0.63) had reduced odds of readmission compared to those from non-LSH.
Conclusions:
Surgical patients with LEP discharged from LSH had lower odds of readmission, suggesting LSH may be better equipped than non-LSH. Worse disparities for Common and Rare NENS Languages suggest the need to expand resources beyond Spanish.
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