non-English speaking patients

See the following -

How Hospitals Screw You if You Don't Speak English

Farah Khan | The Daily Beast | February 25, 2016

Doctors aren’t doing nearly enough to care for their non-English speaking patients.
I spend a lot of my time harping about the importance of communication in the field of healthcare, whether it’s between primary services and consulting subspecialists, providers and patients, or providers and family members of patients. The times when effective communication between patients and providers is hindered prove especially difficult...

Read More »

In The Hospital, A Bad Translation Can Destroy A Life

Kristian Foden-Vencil | NPR | October 27, 2014

Translating from one language to another is a tricky business, and when it comes to interpreting between a doctor and patient, the stakes are even higher. Consider the story of 18-year-old baseball player Willie Ramirez. In 1980, Ramirez was taken to a South Florida hospital in a coma, says Helen Eby, a certified medical interpreter in Oregon. "His family apparently used the word 'intoxicado' to talk about this person," she says. "Well, 'intoxicado' in Spanish just means that you ingested something. It could be food; it could be a drug; it could be anything that has made you sick"...

Read More »