Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, WA
In Their Own Words: Improving Interpretation and Language Access

Background: In 2015, Swedish Medical Center recorded 114,282 patient requests for interpretation in 143 different languages. CHNAs and interviews with community leaders identified the importance of cultural and linguistic competency when designing healthcare services. Our goal was to reduce language barriers for the most-used languages and improve the care experience for limited English proficiency (LEP) communities at Swedish.

Methods: We began by reviewing CHNAs and having discussions with various LEP community stakeholders about their experiences at Swedish. We developed an in-language patient satisfaction survey for baseline and compiled translated forms and documents. Once we reviewed the data, we created a communication plan for units and clinics that would engage charge nurses, and we distributed language aids. We created updated forms and documents and developed a training program to internally share and educate caregivers. Postintervention, we again conducted the patient satisfaction survey.

Results: LEP patients’ knowledge of how to use interpretive services increased from baseline to postintervention, and LEP patients’ reported ease of communication also improved. This intervention showed that we could raise awareness through project presentation to leadership and staff, that we should develop interpreter services training and embed a presentation about these services in the monthly and yearly new provider and resident orientation, and that we should include language scenarios in the Culture of Safety training.

Conclusion: LEP patients and staff alike have frustrations when it comes to the impact of communication limitations on patient care. We believe that the interventions developed in this project have the potential to improve numerous patient/staff interactions and patient experiences. Although data collection to support this conclusion has been difficult, we received positive feedback from the nursing staff regarding the compilation and organization of frequently used documents. Our hope is that our Interpretive Services Department can build upon this work to sustain, scale, and spread our efforts to the entire Swedish Health Services system.