Increasing Language Access

New York State has the second largest immigrant population in the nation. With over 4 million foreign-born people who speak over 150 languages, health care providers across the state are facing major challenges in developing adequate language services to communicate effectively with their patients.

Providers routinely find themselves in untenable situations where minor children serve as interpreters for their mothers. It is not uncommon that women’s family planning needs are poorly expressed or misinterpreted by husbands who accompany them to the health care provider.

Poor communication can lead to misdiagnoses, delays in medical care, medical procedures performed without the patient’s consent or noncompliance with a care plan or referral. Advocates affiliated with women’s organizations have also confirmed that many women are simply not seeking health care except in emergencies.

While research indicates that inadequate language services have negatively impacted access to, and quality of, health care for limited English proficient patients, there is no comprehensive NYS or national policy that supports language access services for health care provision.

The Education Fund is working with the Center for Women in Government and Civil Society at the University at Albany (CWIG) and the Center for Immigrant Health at New York University (CIH) to increase language access services in health care on both the statewide and national level.

With generous funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, The Education Fund of Family Planning Advocates, The Center for Women in Government & Civil Society at the University at Albany, and The Center for Immigrant Health of New York University School of Medicine hosted a one-day conference: Increasing Language Access to Health Care: Toward Effective State and National Policies. The April 25th conference brought together health care stakeholders in NYS, including researchers, state policy makers, health care providers and advocates, to foster the adoption of collaborative strategies to increase language access to health care statewide and on the national level. The ultimate goal of the conference was to expand language access policies in New York State to address the needs of ethnic minorities with Limited English Proficiency. To view conference materials, including presentations click on the links below.

Conference Materials

Conference Program

Keynote Address by Eric J. Hardt, MD: Language Access Research, Key Findings and Evidence-based Policy Implementation

Workshop A: Legal, Ethical and Financial Parameters for Linguistic Access in Health Care Settings
Presentation by Nisha Agarwal, J.D.
Presentation by Mara Youdelman, J.D., LL.M.

Workshop B: Case Studies: Providing Linguistically Competent Care to Perinatal and Reproductive Health Clients
Presentation by Grace Mose, D.A.

Workshop C: Assessing Quality & Evaluating Health Care Outcomes for LEP Individuals
Presentation by Francesca Gany, M.D., M.S.

Lunch Presentation: Providing Linguistic Access: Can We Afford Not To?
Presentation by Marsha Regenstein, Ph.D.

Workshop D: Linguistic Access Technologies and Innovations in Health Care Settings
Presentation by Emily Ambizas, Ph.D. and Linda Weiss, Ph.D.
Presentation by Cornelia Brown, Ph.D.
Presentation by Siddharth Rastogi, M.BA. (pdf file)

Workshop E: Developing an Action Plan for a Linguistically Competent Organization, Lessons from the Field
Presentation by Virginia Tong

Workshop F: Ensuring High Quality Interpretation and Translation
Presentation by Wilma Alvarado-Little, M.A.