Language-Serving Hospitals and Seven-Day Readmission Among Patients With a Non-English Primary Language

Objectives. To compare 7-day readmission among patients with a non-English primary language in language-serving versus non-language-serving hospitals. Methods. We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the New Jersey State Inpatient Database (2010-2022). We identified 578 030 inpatient discharges home among patients with a non-English primary language. We used generalized linear mixed models to compare 7-day readmission between language-serving hospitals-defined as those with a higher proportion of patients with a non-English primary language-and non-language-serving hospitals. Results. Patients with a non-English primary language were less likely to be readmitted within 7 days at language-serving versus non-language-serving hospitals (4.8% vs 9.8%; adjusted odds ratio = 0.49; 95% confidence interval = 0.25, 0.96). This trend persisted when stratified into Spanish (5.5% vs 9.7%), common (4.0% vs 14.6%) and rare non-English primary languages (4.0% vs 8.8%). Conclusions. Patients with a non-English primary language discharged from language-serving hospitals were less likely to be readmitted within 7 days. Public Health Implications. To improve care for patients with a non-English primary language, future research should identify the hospital- and state-level language access policies that underpin these findings. (Am J Public Health. 2026;116(9): 1358-1368. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2026.308470).