Clinicians' Obligations to Use Qualified Medical Interpreters When Caring for Patients with Limited English Proficiency.
Access to language services is a required and foundational component of care for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). National standards for medical interpreting set by the US Department of Health and Human Services and by the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care establish the role of qualified medical interpreters in the provision of care in the United States. In the vignette, the attending physician infringes upon the patient's right to appropriate language services and renders unethical care. Clinicians are obliged to create systems and a culture that ensure quality care for patients with LEP.
Instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, a primary care physician at Cambridge Health Alliance, and a co-director of the Cambridge Health Alliance Internal Medicine Residency Program's health advocacy and social medicine curriculum.
Gaurab
G
Basu
Manager of multicultural affairs and patient services at Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and interim secretary of the Forum on the Coordination of Interpreter Services and former secretary of the International Medical Interpreters Association.
Vonessa Phillips
VP
Costa
Instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, where he is also a hospitalist at Cambridge Health Alliance and the associate program director for the Cambridge Health Alliance Internal Medicine Residency Program.
Priyank
P
Jain
D000328:Adult; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D006205:Haiti; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D028681:Moral Obligations; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics*; D010820:Physicians / Q000941:ethics; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D014175:Translating; D014481:United States; D035862:Vulnerable Populations