BACKGROUND Medical patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) frequently receive health care services of suboptimal quality. METHODS We explored whether clients served with staff interpreters (language-discordant, LDI) receive reproductive health care of lower quality than clients seen by a bilingual clinician (language concordant, LC). We conducted a medical record review of 1,589 repro...

AN ESTIMATED 25 MILLION US RESIDENTS HAVE LIMited English proficiency (LEP) and in a 2006 national survey of 2022 internists, 54% reported encountering patients with LEP at least weekly, with many seeing LEP patients every day. Legal guidance related to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act requires that physicians and hospitals take reasonable steps to ensure effective communication with these pati...

BACKGROUND Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits federal funds recipients from providing care to limited English proficiency (LEP) persons more limited in scope or lower in quality than care provided to others. In 1999, the California Department of Mental Health implemented a "threshold language access policy" to meet its Title VI obligations. Under this policy, Medi-Cal agencies must...

BACKGROUND In the United States, people with limited English proficiency (LEP) receive poorer medical care than those proficient in English. Few studies demonstrate how linguistic barriers complicate psychiatric care; in consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatry, there are no published data about care disparities for patients with LEP or for whom English is not the preferred language (PL). OBJECT...

OBJECTIVE This paper summarizes the barriers and challenges in cancer care reported from a validation project of a self-management intervention handbook from Chinese-American cancer patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). METHODS Seven health-care providers (HCPs) and 16 Chinese-American cancer survivors with LEP were invited to validate a self-management intervention handbook throug...

this paper aims to provide a description of the need for culturally and linguistically appropriate services (clas) for limited english proficient (lep) patients, an identification of how the lack of clas for lep patients can compromise patient safety and healthcare quality, and discuss barriers to the provision of clas.

As noted in the supplement to the U.S. Surgeon General's report on mental health (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001), overcoming language access barriers associated with limited English proficiency (LEP) should help to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in mental health care access and quality. Federal policy requires remedial action to overcome language barriers: Under Ti...

do not receive proper training on use of medical interpreters, and suggest updating residency training curricula. The authors do not address their selection bias for programs in areas of high limited English proficiency (LEP), which likely led to overestimating pediatric residents' proficiency in working with interpreters. With nearly 10% of the U.S. population having LEP, and increased medical...

do not receive proper training on use of medical interpreters, and suggest updating residency training curricula. The authors do not address their selection bias for programs in areas of high limited English proficiency (LEP), which likely led to overestimating pediatric residents' proficiency in working with interpreters. With nearly 10% of the U.S. population having LEP, and increased medical...

This study examined language barriers to health care access among a population-based sample of Medicare seniors in California in 2001 and 2003. Results indicate that Medicare beneficiaries with limited English proficiency (LEP) had less access to a usual source of care and were less likely to receive preventive cancer screening tests. LEP Medicare beneficiaries who also were covered by Medicaid...