Effective Communicaiton in Hospitals Initiative

 Effective Communication in Hospitals Initiative

The Hospital Initiative has grown from nine to 17 state/regional-level partnerships, and has delivered tangible best practices to enhance effective communication in hospital settings for persons with limited English proficiency or who are deaf or hard of hearing.  Since December 2007, OCR has: 

• Brokered a sharing arrangement to bring Missouri’s Health Translations website, a free repository of more than 650 translated documents and resources for non-English speaking individuals specific to health care, to Kentucky’s hospitals;
  
• Collaborated with the AHA’s Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET) to provide each state hospital association with state-specific data that HRET had collected in a comprehensive survey of hospitals regarding the target populations they serve and the language access services they offer;
  
• Developed a general survey tool and specific survey tools for Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kentucky, Utah, and Washington member hospitals to gather data about the languages spoken and language assistance required in their states;
  
• Provided technical assistance in Kentucky on the development of a level system to assess proficiency of bilingual hospital staff who serve as interpreters and on cost-savings measures for contracting with interpreters;
  
• Assisted a hospital in Idaho and a hospital in Washington in increasing both the effectiveness and the efficiency of their language line services;
  
• Assisted the Kentucky Hospital Association in the creation of a webpage dedicated to effective communication and populated the webpage with numerous resources and tools;
  
• Trained hospital association members in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, Oklahoma, Idaho, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Utah, on the federal anti-discrimination laws and The Joint Commission accreditation standards that apply concerning language access for the deaf, hard of hearing, and limited English proficient;
  
• Trained the hospital members of all of the partner hospital associations on:
  
  • Reimbursement for interpreter services through the Medicaid program;
  • The AHA Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET) Disparities Toolkit for “Collecting Race, Ethnicity, and Primary Language Information from Patients;”
  • The HHS Office of Minority Health’s web-based “Patient-Centered Guide on Implementing language Access Services in Healthcare Organizations” and numerous tools and resources it contains;
  • The Joint Commission’s report “One Size Does Not Fit All: Meeting the Health Care Needs of Diverse Populations” and self-assessment tool; and
  • The HHS Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) on-line training course, “Unified Health Communication 101:  Addressing Health Literacy, Cultural Competency, and Limited English Proficiency.” 
  • Developed a dedicated webpage on the OCR website providing state-of-the art technical assistance on “Hospitals and Effective Communication;” and
  • Leveraged relationships with key stakeholders to bring their resources to the Initiative, including the Department of Justice, the National Health Law Program, and The Joint Commission. 

Effective Communication in Hospitals Initiative