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Interpreters in the Emergency Department:
Issue Brief from Mathematica Assesses How Professional Translators Improve Patient/Provider Satisfaction
Media Advisory: February 25, 2010
Contact: Amy Berridge, (609) 945-3378
Issue: Language or interpretive services for non-English speakers in emergency departments ensure that patients and providers can communicate with each other. But the quality of these services—often provided via telephone or ad hoc by untrained bilingual staff or family member(s)—can vary, hindering communication and lowering patient and provider satisfaction.
In Using Professionally Trained Interpreters to Increase Patient/Provider Satisfaction: Does it Work?, Mathematica Policy Research assessed the link between patient/provider satisfaction and use of professional interpreters in the emergency department.
Quote: “We found that trained professional interpreters dramatically increased satisfaction with patient-provider communication during emergency department visits,” says Ann Bagchi, a senior researcher at Mathematica and lead author of the brief. “This was true for patients, doctors, and triage and discharge nurses. In addition to enhancing communication, these professional interpreters may also improve other outcomes related to quality of care.”
Brief: Using Professionally Trained Interpreters to Increase Patient/Provider Satisfaction: Does it Work?, by Ann D. Bagchi, Stacy Dale, Natalya Verbitsky-Savitz, and Sky Andrecheck.
About Mathematica: Mathematica Policy Research, a nonpartisan research firm, provides a full range of research and data collection services, including program evaluation and policy research, survey design and data collection, research assessment and interpretation, and program performance/data management, to improve public well-being. Its clients include federal and state governments, foundations, and private-sector and international organizations. The employee-owned company, with offices in Princeton, N.J., Ann Arbor, Mich., Cambridge, Mass., Chicago, Ill., Oakland, Calif., and Washington, D.C., has conducted some of the most important studies of health care, international, disability, education, family support, employment, nutrition, and early childhood policies and programs.