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- Title
"Does this doctor speak my language?" Improving the characterization of physician non-English language skills.
- Authors
Diamond LC; Luft HS; Chung S; Jacobs EA; Diamond, Lisa C; Luft, Harold S; Chung, Sukyung; Jacobs, Elizabeth A
- Abstract
<bold>Objective: </bold>To describe the initial impact of an organizational policy change on measurement of physician non-English language proficiency.<bold>Study Setting: </bold>Multispecialty health care organization in the San Francisco Bay Area.<bold>Study Design/data Collection: </bold>In response to preliminary findings suggesting that the organization's nonvalidated and undefined three-category tool for physician self-report of non-English language proficiency levels was likely inadequate, the organization asked physicians to rate their non-English language proficiency levels using an adapted Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale, a validated measure with five rating levels and descriptors. We then compared the self-reported language proficiency on the original scale and the ILR for those physicians who completed both and used regression analysis to investigate physician characteristics potentially associated with a change in score on the old versus ILR scales.<bold>Principal Findings: </bold>Six months after the ILR scale was implemented throughout the organization, 75 percent (258/342) of physicians had updated their language proficiency ratings. Among clinicians who had previously rated themselves in the "Medical/Conversational" category, there were substantial variations in scores using the ILR scale. Physicians who spoke two or more non-English languages were significantly more likely to lower their self-reported proficiency when updating from the old scale to the ILR scale.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>The organization was willing to adopt a relatively straightforward change in how data were collected and presented to patients based on the face validity of initial findings. This organizational policy change appeared to improve how self-reported physician language proficiency was characterized.
- Publication
Health Services Research, 2012, Vol 47, Issue 1pt2, p556
- ISSN
0017-9124
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1475-6773.2011.01338.x