Telemedicine Leaves Behind Non-English Speakers, Study Shows 80
People who speak limited English struggled to access telehealth services in the US during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new analysis, affecting their ability to connect with medical care. It's something experts worried about as soon as health organizations made the switch from in-person to virtual care. From a report: "That was really a concern of ours -- who is getting left out?" says Denise Payan, an assistant professor of health, society, and behavior at the University of California, Irvine, who worked on the study.
Payan and her colleagues interviewed staff and patients at two community health centers in California about their experiences with telehealth between December 2020 and April 2021. One of the clinics serves a primarily Spanish-speaking population, and the second serves a primarily Chinese-speaking population. Neither had offered video or phone visits before the pandemic started. Both started to them available soon after the California stay-at-home orders in March 2020 -- first with phone calls, then with video. The researchers spoke with 15 clinic workers and nine patients. Clinic patients who spoke limited English struggled to set up and use platforms like Zoom for health visits, the researchers found. "Things like not being able to read FAQs," Payan says. "There's reliance on either clinic personnel, staff, or family members -- like kids, who are helping their parents get connected to video visits."
Payan and her colleagues interviewed staff and patients at two community health centers in California about their experiences with telehealth between December 2020 and April 2021. One of the clinics serves a primarily Spanish-speaking population, and the second serves a primarily Chinese-speaking population. Neither had offered video or phone visits before the pandemic started. Both started to them available soon after the California stay-at-home orders in March 2020 -- first with phone calls, then with video. The researchers spoke with 15 clinic workers and nine patients. Clinic patients who spoke limited English struggled to set up and use platforms like Zoom for health visits, the researchers found. "Things like not being able to read FAQs," Payan says. "There's reliance on either clinic personnel, staff, or family members -- like kids, who are helping their parents get connected to video visits."
Why? (Score:2)
My Medicare Advantage is with Kaiser.
I have a choice of over 20 languages for support.
I have actually observed it in action when I was recovering from a minor surgery.
Oh look! Surprise!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Another study on how people who don't want to conform to the norms of society are disadvantaged, and how everyone else should accommodate them. Surprise!!!
Re:Oh look! Surprise!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Oh look! Surprise!! (Score:4, Insightful)
If you move to a country, you learn the primary language in that country or you expect to be disadvantaged.
Like all those illegal European immigrants did, right?
You must be referring to immigration after about 1890, right? Before that, there weren't any Federal immigration laws, aside from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, so there weren't any illegal immigrants. After 1890 and through the early 20th century, almost all European immigrants came through Ellis Island and were actually legal immigrants.
It's well known that lots of those first-generation immigrants didn't learn English, and it's also well known that they were definitely disadvantaged because of it. But most of their children did learn English.
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So, English should be the goal for anyone coming to the US to live and become a citizen.
We should have made it the official national language a LONG time ago, just to let everyone know beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Maybe this health thing will be encouragement for them to learn the common language here in the US.
I'll be if you run to Mexico they don't bend over backwards outside of the tourist areas to make sure everything
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The English necessary for the citizenship test is not sufficient even to be able to order food in a restaurant.
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We have mainly English in much of the country, but Spanish is as dominant in some places as English is elsewhere.
If we have to have official languages then they should include both.
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It's your best interest to learn the local language, but nevertheless developed countries provide interprets for free for interaction with the government services, whether physical or over the phone. Hospitals everywhere have a listing of their staff fluent in other languages to avoid the delays and procedure of requesting a government interpret. It is valid subject of study to try understand how the stay-at-home orders have affected the efficiency of the healthcare services targeting the foreigner populati
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In addition to Hospitals in the US having a listing of their staff fluent in other languages you may find they have some form of "language line" available.
Originally it was a dedicated phone line to a translating service, these days it is a service over the net, much easier to set up and more effective in my opinion, for instance you can't expect the one person fluent in Tagalog (for example) to be available 24/7 to do this service while doing their regular job...
The online service is pricey for smaller est
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In the general case I'd agree.
However, the dominant language in many parts of the U.S. is Spanish, not English, and in some cases has been for centuries.
It makes sense to me, if I had a business or charity or any other organization providing services there, I would try to provide them in both languages.
Now, I do think people there should learn English - but I also think primary English speakers there should learn Spanish as well. For exactly the same reasons. Everyone benefits if people can communicate wi
Re: Oh look! Surprise!! (Score:3)
No benefit to two "official" languages. It just increases costs and wastes resources that could be used for something else. There is no value-added.
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Sure, to get around and do everyday things yes, learn the local language.
However, things like telemedicine don't really have that excuse. If I visit a doctor in a foreign country, yes, I have no right to expect that the doctor might speak English. They're just one person.
Telemedicine though has no such boundaries. They can draw from an immense pool of people far and wide because it's telemedicine. If you're in the US, accessing a doctor via telemedicine, does it matter that the doctor is near you, or clear
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I'm a bit confused as to where the USA has declared English to be the official language. Perhaps I missed something?
Yes, you missed what that this has nothing to do with the "national language", which is about government official functions. Try reading the article, it has such useful information like:
"But even without language barriers getting in the way, many patients didn’t have the digital literacy to navigate telemedicine, didn’t have devices that could use the telehealth tools, or didn’t have good enough internet access to connect with a provider. “With that older population, it is a little
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Guess you never heard of permanent resident status?
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Talking US citizenship here...
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Older Populations used to be take care of by the younger generations of family. As we dismantle the Nuclear Family with policies and programs, we leave many behind. The exception shouldn't be the rule.
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If I went to Mexico expecting to be serviced in English, I'd look like an ignorant American.
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I speak a plethora of languages you insensitive clod (ahem, I mean esteemed elder - 9367! Wow!)
Basic, C, C++, Assembler, Fortran, Pascal, Java, C#, APL... so I speak 10 (decimal).
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I really can't get used to slashdotters making it sound like some research is bad if the results are not surprising. How would you know they are not surprising if you don't do the research in the first place? Anyway research is not about surprises, it's about observing, quantifying and interpreting data. Sometimes the results are compatible with common sense, sometimes they are not, and in both cases you want to have that published and advertised, such that it solves the question once for all, or at least u
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Free English classes for those NINE people? (Score:3)
Yes, the politically correct thing is to include everyone, at tax payer expense.
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Yes, the politically correct thing is to include everyone, at tax payer expense.
Sometimes the "politically correct" thing is exactly the same as the correct thing.
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"Politically" means "government force". When Government force goes awry, who benefits? Politicians promising to fix the problems they created.
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I think that would go further to improve the situation in the long term. In the short term hire some bilinguals? better yet make the English Class part of the clinic?
Yes, the politically correct thing is to include everyone, at tax payer expense.
If you read the article it's about more than just language. It even says most of the doctors and staff are bilingual.
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Try Klingon. A big part of its vocabulary describes different methods of fighting and killing.
I'm told that the closest translation of "I love you" is "vIHengbe' 'e' vIHarbe'. vaj DaH jItlheD" which when translated back means, roughly, "I have decided not to kill you where you stand. For now."
Hmm (Score:4, Interesting)
Shouldn't this be a strength of telemedicine? (Score:2)
Like, shouldn't this be a headline advantage of telemedicine - the ability to connect with a doctor that fits your specific needs (including language) regardless of their physical location?
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Like, shouldn't this be a headline advantage of telemedicine - the ability to connect with a doctor that fits your specific needs (including language) regardless of their physical location?
The problem is not with telemedicine per se, it is with the tools used to connect like Zoom. Why a utility which is theoretically used around the world, does not have things like FAQs and instructions available in multiple languages is a mystery to me. I expect that they exist, it is merely that the language used defaults to the primary language of the location of the computer. A simple preferably universal way of choosing an alternate language would be a major upgrade to many computer programs.
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Most operating systems can be configured to operate in multiple languages, although they always seem to look unnatural when running in anything but english because not everything is translated so you still get bits of english mixed in.
HTTP has also included an accept-lang header almost right from the start, where your browser can tell the server what languages it prefers. But then lots of sites (google for instance) completely ignore this preference and use the source address of your traffic to pick a langu
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In most countries, you need to speak the language (Score:3)
To use government services, get customer service in a business, talk to a medical professional, lawyer, etc etc etc you must speak their language. If any of these morons had ever lived outside the US, they would know that.
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Plenty of countries offer bi-lingual government services. Just look north for a prime example.
Re: In most countries, you need to speak the langu (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah. Canada doesn't offer services in Mandarin or Spanish. Fucking racists!!
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Poor orangaization problem (Score:2)
Not that hard to:
1) For physical locations put a message up in multiple languages, including the top five for an area, directing them to a device with multiple languages, letting them select how to communicate.
2) Get the preferred language for all when they sign up for health care and sending all communication to them in that language
If you offer tele-medicine in Hindu then you must have someone that speaks Hindu.
The problem is that people are insisting on ONLY doing the telemedicine in the alternative la
Re: Poor orangaization problem (Score:2)
Doctor: I offer medical services in my language. If you want services in some other language, go to another doctor who offers such services.
Absolutely nothing wrong with that.
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Do you live in the 1970s? Because that would be true.... if individual doctors still offered medical services. Absolutely NONE of my doctors offer individual medical services. The only type of doctors that currently do that are psychiatrists. Well, maybe dentists, if you consider them to be doctors.
Instead, every single doctor I go to works for someone else. Either they work for a clinic or they work for a hospital. I do know a few that are partnerships. Even eye doctors no longer have single practice
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It's got nothing to do with pride. You are asking that doctor offices break the triage system they put in place or not hire nurses that study medicine instead of languages in school.
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For online service it's much easier, the service can list the supported languages and upon selection they can put you in a queue to speak to someone who knows that language. If there's demand for doctors speaking a particular language they can be hired from wherever that language is widely spoken.
For a physical service it's harder, as the closest doctor who speaks the requested language might be thousands of miles away.
Sue is cute (Score:2)
Clinic patients who spoke limited English struggled to set up and use platforms like Zoom for health visits, the researchers found.
Yes, but how does this translate into yachts flowing into pockets of suing lawyers?
That'a this part;
3. ????
4. PROFIT!
Educate (Score:5, Informative)
>"Clinic patients who spoke limited English struggled to set up and use platforms like Zoom for health visits, the researchers found. âoeThings like not being able to read FAQs,â PayÃn says. âoeThereâ(TM)s reliance on either clinic personnel, staff, or family members â" like kids, who are helping their parents get connected to video visits.â
And how is this any different than the exact same problems with forms, FAQ, and communication with staff when in-person? The reality is, that, in the USA, English is the language, like it or not. It is the language of law, entertainment, commerce, trade, medicine, aviation, and science (and not just in the USA, it is also the de-facto common lingua franca of much of the world at this point). If you don't understand English, you *will* be at a disadvantage. The correct way to handle this is not to try and "accommodate" dozens of different languages in everything that exists, but to offer educational services to teach English.
Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime.
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(and not just in the USA, it is also the de-facto common lingua franca of much of the world at this point).
LOL. English or Latin?
Learn f*cking English then (Score:5, Insightful)
If you go and live in a foreign country learn the damn language. This also applies to english speakers (americans, brits, aussies and kiwis all as bad as each other in this respect) who move abroad and expect the locals to speak english to them. Its lazy, rude and insulting.
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So I need to learn a new language before requesting medical assistance? Quite a bit inconvenient...
Re: Learn f*cking English then (Score:2)
If you live in the country then yes. Good luck getting much done in france if you done speak basic french.
Re: Learn f*cking English then (Score:2)
So go live in a country where your language is dominant.
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Re:Learn f*cking English then (Score:4, Insightful)
I've lived in Germany and the concept that I would move there and expect THEM to cater to ME so I didn't have to 'bother' to learn German is incomprehensible.
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Really? I traveled all over the place and have not once had a problem of not being able to get assistance in English for health clinic visits, shopping, travel arrangements and so on. OBVIOUSLY, if you are going to stay in a country long term, you can't just expect to be accommodated in every case. But having language assistance available in areas with significant foreign visitors, for things that foreign visitors are likely to require is just common sense. For telehealth especially, a translator doesn't ha
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For services catering to short term visitors there will almost always be english speaking staff available, but these services are paid for by tourists and are overall beneficial to the country because tourists bring in foreign currency. The local businesses or taxpayers should not be paying for interpreters unless the provision of such services is beneficial to them (ie the tourists bring in more money than the interpreters cost).
Not being able to speak the local language of where you're currently staying i
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Language assistance for short term visitors != full foreign language translators in every school, for example.
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If you go and live in a foreign country learn the damn language. This also applies to english speakers (americans, brits, aussies and kiwis all as bad as each other in this respect) who move abroad and expect the locals to speak english to them. Its lazy, rude and insulting.
Pray tell, how many foreign languages do you know? Zero I bet, or else you'd have an idea of how f*cking hard it is to learn one. Let me tell you, it takes more than a three month online course. And yes, of course if you want to live somewhere you should learn the native language, but that takes several years, and in the meantime you have to be able to go to the doctor somehow.
Shocking! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Certain elements in the US: Hey, lets let tons of illegal immigrants in, pretend like it's not happening, have no organized process for acclimating them to our culture, and then be surprised when they have trouble communicating.
You are assuming that part of the design isn't to keep them dependent and separated.
Obvious outcome, obviously... (Score:2)
Tele-whatever (Score:2)
This isn't a problem for clinics or healthcare providers so much as it is the problem of Teams/Slack/Zoom/Facetime or whatever platform they may choose to use. Let the platform or app provide multilingual and then require that the healthcare community utilize only those platforms providing such support.
It would be possible that such support would consist of a link to a multilingual support help line. Which could walk users through the FAQs in their native language and even screen share with them to get thi
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Do you think the chinese government care that you caught flu last week?
Exagerated Title, Tempered Response (Score:2)
FIRST and most importantly---
Infantilizing non-English speakers only serves to increase the intolerance and hate of non-English speakers. Stop painting them as helpless victims. You're nullifying their agency and effectively labeling them as burdens to be carried. Just take a look at this comment section. I've never seen such unbridled intolerance of immigrants on Slashdot as I have in this discussion section. I'm Mexican-American and grew up in Southern California... and this comment section has me saying,
THIS is why we need English speakers (Score:2)
I'll just leave this here... (Score:1)
Countries like Iceland have a requirement you MUST know the language before you can immigrate and integrate into society.