A model for improving language services in healthcare from California Public Hospitals' experience: Assessing your organization's readiness and drawing on innovative technologies, resources and strategies

This session will explore how synergy between language access improvement initiatives, leadership commitment, technology innovations, and targeted funding created an environment that accelerated language access improvements in California public hospital systems. This interactive learning session will take teams from different institutions through an assessment of their own organization’s readiness to change and explore the success factors that will enable them to adopt and spread the use of high-quality, affordable healthcare interpreting. Following this assessment, teams will then have the opportunity to review their current policies and procedures on language access using the best practices and experiential knowledge gained through the California public hospital experience and Straight Talk: Model Policies and Procedures on Language Access, a publication developed by the Safety Net Institute. Attendees will leave the session with a macro-level view of their organization’s readiness to engage in language services as well as improved policies and procedures on language access and valuable guidance and input that can be used to drive future language improvement initiatives.

Fundamental to improving language services is an underlying organizational readiness to engage in language services improvements. The California Endowment funded an evaluation to examine system-level barriers and facilitators to providing language services in California’s public hospitals, conducted by researchers from the Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET), Boston University’s Health Policy Institute (BU), and Northwestern University (NU). As part of the initiative, the HRET/BU/NU team developed a Readiness to Engage instrument. Julie Yonek of HRET will guide attendees through the process of evaluating their organization based on the 17 measures of readiness developed by HRET.

Also critical to the success of California public hospital’s efforts to improve language services, was a review of their organization’s policies and procedures on language access. Using the SNI-produced Straight Talk: Model Policies and Procedures on Language Access, expert consultants from Paras and Associates engaged directly with hospital executives from numerous public hospitals across the state to review and improve their organization’s policies and procedures on language access to better serve their unique patient populations. Building off the techniques used to assess language access policies and procedures in California’s public hospitals, facilitators will take attendees through the process of reviewing their organization’s policies and procedures and offer best practices and useful solutions to overcome barriers to providing language services across their hospital system.

The following facilitators will engage in conversation about what has driven and sustained improvements in language services in California’s public hospitals and offer guidance to attendees as they review their own organization’s policies and procedures on language access and organizational readiness to engage:

• Melinda Paras of Paras and Associates has emerged as a national expert on hospital language services and interpretation technology.
  
• Jonathan Mesinger, PhD, of San Mateo Medical Center has partnered with his organization’s hospital leadership to build a successful interpreter program employing technological solutions.
  
• Gloria Garcia-Orme, RN, MS, of San Francisco General Hospital has served in an advisory capacity to SNI in addition to leading language access improvements at her institutions.
  
• Wendy Jameson, MPH/MPP has directed the California Health Care Safety Net Institute and led quality improvement programs for California’s public hospitals for over a decade. She has been recognized as a leader, catalyst and expert in improving language services in California’s public hospitals.
  
• Julie Yonek, MPH, is Director of Program Evaluation for the Health Research and Educational Trust.  She has extensive experience researching system-level strategies which facilitate effective, patient-centered communication in hospitals, including the provision of language services.
  

Participants will get the most benefit from this workshop if a team of two people from the same organization can attend.  Please bring your organization’s policies and procedures on language access to the session.