AAP-CA Leaders Seek Ways to Meet California's Limited-English Proficient Patients' Language Needs

In an effort to improve the delivery of health care services to limited-English proficient (LEP) Californians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, California (AAP-CA), representing all 4 California AAP Chapters, has joined a collaborative of 25 physician and medical organizations from across the state to create The California Endowment's Medical Leadership Council for Language Access. The Council will seek strategies to improve the provision of interpreter and translation services to LEP patients. Funding for the Council was provided with a $424,700 grant from The Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation.

The Council, which is one component of The Endowment's four-pronged strategy to develop the field of health care interpretation and translation, meets biannually to discuss strategies to improve the quality of care received by patients with LEP, and to explore policy changes that can provide solutions to funding for health care interpretation services. AAP-CA representatives are Elliot Weinstein, MD, FAAP and AAP-CA Executive Director Kris Calvin, MA.

According to the Census 2000 Supplemental Survey, 39.5 percent of Californians speak a language other than English at home. It is estimated that 51 percent or seven million of these individuals are LEP and would benefit from language assistance - either interpretation (spoken) or translation (written) - when accessing health care services.

In April 2002, Brandeis University released a report showing that LEP hospital patients face a much greater risk of medical error and misdiagnosis when they are not provided with an interpreter.

Additionally, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report in March 2002, which showed that minorities receive a lower quality of care than whites, even when their insurance and income are the same. The IOM review of more than 100 studies conducted over the past decade concludes that these disparities contributed to higher death rates among minorities from cancer, heart disease, diabetes and HIV infection.