Benefits of a Bilingual Health Care Provider?

The benefits of being a bilingual health care provider or seeing a bilingual health care provider are enormous for the patient. Just in the sense of putting a patient and their family at ease, speaking a common language can make all the difference. When working through the broadening scope of language needs, this is an area where health care professionals are doing their best to branch out.

Patient History and Problem

• When trying to get a complete patient history as well as a description of the problem it is very useful to speak the same language. Relying on another person to translate in exact terms what a patient is feeling or going through is complicated. Not all people put the same emphasis on all areas making it difficult to know what is truly important. Also, when acquiring private information, getting a third party involved might make the patient more shy about being honest as to their current problem or their history, especially if communicating through a family member. Some hospitals have attempted to eliminate this problem by only having designated interpreters, but that requires having the necessary staff as well as still involving a third party.

Improving the Patient's Experience

• In easing a patient's mind and keeping them calm in a frightening situation it helps to be speaking the same language. Some tests are complicated, requiring intimidating machines or multiple blood draws. You can provide more complete information if you are speaking the same language. The risk of something being lost in translation lessens as the questions can be directly asked and answered, putting the patient at ease. This is also beneficial for getting accurate test results. Tests such as blood pressure can be affected by a stressed-out patient, causing inaccurate readings. This can also eliminate the need for unnecessary tests as the physician can be assured they received the right answer to all questions. When dealing through a third party, they might wish to back up the answers with additional testing due to the language barrier.

Aftercare

• Ensuring that a patient follows aftercare instructions is important. A patient's recovery is greatly affected by how completely they follow and understand what they are supposed to do when they get home. By being able to speak to them in their native language as well as print out instructions in a format they can understand you are helping them recover more efficiently. This also helps keep hospital costs lower as compliant patients are less likely to be readmitted to the hospital.

Financial Concerns and Privacy

• Furthermore, speaking a common language helps with complicated situations such as billing and social assistance. In order to facilitate the least expensive way for patients to be cared for, a health care provider must be able to communicate the patient's options. Due to privacy acts, some patients only receive limited options as they do not know how to approve a third party to hear certain questions or subjects that health care providers are prohibited from discussing in front of other people. These can be touchy subjects such as birth control, HIV, and abortion.