Eliminating Inequities with Interpretation: Effective Communication for Improving Health Outcomes

Charting Pediatrics

In the United States, nearly 68 million people speak a language other than English at home. That number has virtually tripled over the last three decades. As our country continues to experience this soaring growth, qualified medical interpreters are becoming more essential to improving health outcomes and achieving health equity goals. Patients with hearing loss or limited health literacy may also require interpretation services. "Effective communication through interpreter utilization is one of the most important things we can do to help our patients with that," Anna Ruman, MD, says.

Dr. Ruman is one of our guests on today's episode. She is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a hospitalist at Children's Hospital Colorado. Her passion for this work started before attending medical school. After minoring in Spanish in college, she lived and worked in Mexico. From there, she made her way to Chicago to work as an English-Spanish health educator. She is joined by Nancy Casillas, a medical interpreter and program coordinator for the Medical Interpretation and Translation Department here at Children's Colorado. Casillas, a first-generation Mexican American, has been with Children's Colorado for 16 years and understands the challenges of having English as a second language. "I feel that through this work, I'm helping those families who may be newly arrived immigrants to the country, and they may feel a little lost, and with my skills I'm helping them feel not so lost in this country," Casillas says.

These experts explain how the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has specifically identified language access as one of the five priority areas for the next year, aligning with the shared goal to reduce or eliminate healthcare disparities.

Some highlights from this episode include:

• How medical interpreters enhance health equity
• Advantages and disadvantages of different types of interpreting
• Qualifications for interpretation practice versus being bilingual
• Advancements happening at Children's Colorado

For more information on Children's Colorado, visit: childrenscolorado.org