Accessing medical care in a time of distress is scary enough when you understand the language the doctors and nurses are speaking in, and you’re not struggling to decipher the letters on the page. The ability to communicate your ailments, fears and concerns is crucial to getting the proper diagnosis and treatment.
But that’s not the reality for so many people in North America today.
We have the technology that would make confident communication a reality for all patients across the continent. But in order to get there, governments need to step up and fund medical interpretation services.
And it’ll be worth every penny.
As many as 25 million Americans over the age of five say they speak English “less than well” — that’s nearly a tenth of the country.
More than half of Canadians speak a primary language other than English or French. That number hit a record high in 2021 and has doubled over the last 30 years. There are also more than 70 Indigenous languages and cultures in the country — very few of which are represented in medical spaces.
This is to say nothing of the tens of millions of refugees who are becoming displaced globally, many of which are seeking care in North America and growing the content’s linguistic diversity — making the issue all the more urgent.
Without the ease of speaking to a physician or nurse in your native language or through an interpreter, medical misdiagnosis and medical errors are more likely to happen. Inevitably, patient care will suffer.
Patients with limited English and chronic disease are also more likely to return to the emergency room or be readmitted to the hospital, according to a study from University of Toronto researchers. Instructions given during hospital discharge or guidance on how to properly take medication can be lost in translation which will only add to the already overburdened and overwhelmed hospital system.
But there is reason for hope. Technology and innovation have advanced to a place where now we can seamlessly connect our society across borders and cultures to deliver healthcare solutions to anyone, anywhere.
So why have we not been able to overcome this particular hurdle? Cost.
Nearly one third of American hospitals don’t provide interpreters to patients who speak little English, even though it is required by federal law. Only 13 states and Washington, D.C. provide reimbursements for the cost of medical interpreters through Medicaid.
The remaining states — including those with the extensive non-English speaking populations, such as California and Florida — say the costs are factored into existing reimbursement rates.
Since the government isn’t willing to foot the bill, hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare providers end up bearing the brunt of the cost for a service that should be universally provided.
A similar scene is playing out in Canada. With no legal requirement to provide interpretation, services vary hospital to hospital. And with the cost of interpretation coming out of the hospitals’ pocketbooks, some patients may be forced to rely on family members or bilingual hospital workers — neither of which are trained to translate specific medical terms or advice.
And this disparity only grows looking at mental health treatment, which arguably requires more precise interpretation and subtleties.
As I see it, pluralism and diversity in our society should be something to celebrate. But it must be accounted for when providing support and care for people, especially when they are at their most vulnerable. When a person enters the walls of a hospital without speaking the local language, they need a bridge to their culture to help relieve anxiety and give them the confidence to express what ails them in their own words, with their own voice.
The innovation ecosystem has delivered the technological ability to establish this bridge, but that is just one part of the equation. We also need governments to connect the dots between technology and health equity and support patients by providing direct reimbursements of language interpreter services in healthcare. We need governments to ensure these fundamental services are always available to those who need them, no matter the cost.
If we work together, we can make this a reality. We can give a voice to the voiceless.
Photo: Nuthawut Somsuk
