Ecosystem for credentialing and supporting a bilingual provider workforce

Limited English proficientLEPpatients who struggle to understand their care providers report difficulty navigating both administrative and clinical proceduresleading to poorer outcomes than their English proficient counterpartsDespite numerous federal and state mandates requiring adequate language assistancehealthcare organizations have had limited success in implementing appropriate servicesFacing a shortage of certified medical interpretershospitals frequently utilize ad hoc ordual roleinterpretersmany of whom are bilingual staff with self reported medical fluencyWhile convenient and sometimes unavoidablesuch ad hoc interpreters are more likely to make critical translation errors that can potentially lead to preventable clinical complicationsin factit has been found thatof dual role interpreters are unfit to perform medical interpretationDespite the increasing reliance on personnel with self reported bilingual fluency to deliver critical health information to vulnerable patient populationsthere is no rigorous and scalable method for assessing bilingual communicative competence in healthcareThis deficit not only renders improvements upon language services difficultbut also deprives qualified bilingual personnel the due recognition and career advancing credentials they deserve for their skillsThis Topical Assessment of Language KnowledgeTALKinitiative aims to deliver a comprehensive support ecosystem for the bilingual healthcare workforceconsisting of a medical bilingual proficiency exama scorer workflow management portaland a searchable directory of credentialed bilingual healthcare personnelFurtherbased on proficiency exam resultsTALK will offer recommendations for additional language training matched to a test takerandapos s areas of weaknesscreating a mechanism for continued improvement of their valuable skillsetThis systematic approach will provide the necessary support for fostering standardizationincreased transparencyand quality assurance in instances of bilingual medical communicationThe effectiveness of this approach will be evaluated through implementation with administratorshealthcare workersassessment test scorersand other pertinent stakeholders Clinical miscommunications experienced between LEP patients and care providers result in compromised careand pose a great financial burden to the hospitals where they interactDirectives to provide language services to these patients remain inadequately implementedplacing much responsibility on bilingual healthcare workers serving in dual roleswhose language proficiency is largely unevaluatedTo address these challengesthis project will develop a comprehensive assessment and supportive ecosystem that facilitates standardization and transparency for this valuable bilingual healthcare workforceultimately elevating the quality of care for a large segment of underserved patients