title: Use of an emergency medical pictorial communication book during simulated disaster conditions.
abstract: During disasters, the needs of victims outstrip available resources. Rapid assessment of patients must be performed; however, language barriers can be an impediment to efficient patient assessment, especially if interpreter resources are limited. Dependency on interpretive services requiring technology such a telephones, cell phones, and video conferencing may be inefficient, as they may be unavailable during disaster conditions. A low-tech, portable tool that aids in communication with non-English speakers would be beneficial. The medical emergency communication (MEC) book, developed at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, has the potential to be a useful tool in this capacity. The goal of this pilot study was to compare the accuracy of a newly developed disaster-focused medical history obtained from Spanish-speaking patients or caregivers using the MEC book, compared to a control group with whom no book was used. Our hypothesis was that use of the MEC book improves accuracy of medical history taking between English-only speaking health care workers and Spanish-speaking patients better than a monolingual clinician trying to take a medical history without it. We anticipated a higher overall score in the group of subjects whose histories were taken using the MEC book than in the control group. Patient satisfaction with the MEC book also was measured.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Emergency Medicine & Pediatrics, Los Angeles County Medical Center, and Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California.
authors.forename: Solomon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Behar
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Benson Ii
authors.forename: Ami
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kurzweil
authors.forename: Colleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Azen
authors.forename: Alan L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Nager
mesh_terms: D001877:Books; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003142:Communication; D003144:Communication Barriers; D003198:Computer Simulation; D054597:Disaster Medicine / Q000193:education; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D004638:Emergency Treatment / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006786:Hospitals, Urban; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008487:Medical History Taking / Q000379:methods; D010781:Photography; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D013664:Teaching Materials