Why Should Health Care Organizations Accommodate for Sign Language?

 The Federal Law for Interpreter services states as follow:

·     All health care providers have a legal obligation under the Americans with Disability Act to provide effective communication to people who have a hearing loss. Health care providers may use a variety of auxiliary aids and services, but the result must be communication that is as effective as communication with other individuals without hearing loss. In most circumstances, this means a qualified interpreter is necessary.

·     All health care providers have a legal obligation under the Americans with Disability Act to provide effective communication to people who have a hearing loss. Health care providers may use a variety of auxiliary aids and services, but the result must be communication that is as effective as communication with other individuals without hearing loss. In most circumstances, this means a qualified interpreter is necessary.

 Many of the malpractice claims are related to the lack of appropriate communication between doctor-patients.  “The ability to communicate well with patients has been shown to be effective in reducing the likelihood of malpractice claims.

A 1994 study appearing in the journal of the American Medical Association indicates that the patients of physicians who are frequently sued had the most complaints about communication. Physicians who had never been sued were likely to be described as concerned, accessible and willing to communicate. When physicians treat patients with respect, listen to them, give them information and keep communication lines open, therapeutic relationships are enhanced and medical personnel reduce their risk of being sued for malpractice.” 

From a technical point of view, we could say that health care organizations can provide sign language interpreters to individual with hearing loss, why should there be any differences from individuals with LEP?  The point is that sign language interpreters are harder to find, there is a special certification that they must complete in order to perform their job (The competency and quality of sign language interpreters is assessed and documented through the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID), which administers a national certification system for sign language interpreters).  Cost may be higher for health care organizations.  Perhaps some of the strategies may be the training of in-house staff, which re willing to go through the training and serve as interpreters.  I see it as an investment because health care organizations will increase their patient satisfaction as some of the above examples.

Another strategy is for health care organizations to create an interpreter initiative, where management, staff, and patient champions can work together by creating a framework that identifies gaps, needs, internal resources, external resources, cost, eliminating waste to produce productivity.

REFERENCE

1.     Minnesota Department of Health - www.health.state.mn.us/divs/pqc/hci/ISWGreport08.pdf

For more information contact Helen Dao at helen@daoconsultingservices.com