Sixth National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations: Main Conference Concurrent Workshops Effective Communication: The Patient Experience, Leadership Motivators, and a Framework for Action
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C-1 Effective communication: The patient experience, leadership motivators, and a framework for action

Effective Communication: The Patient Experience, Leadership Motivators, and a Framework for Action
Tuesday, September 23, 2008: 2:00 PM-4:00 PM, Minn Marriott, 4th Floor - Elk Lake
Mr. Juan Lopez presents to the Emergency Department complaining of severe stomach pain.  He does not speak English and believes his pain is being caused by a hex placed upon him by a feuding neighbor.  He comes to the hospital seeking temporary pain relief until he is able to travel to a curandera, a traditional healer, to have the hex removed.
Culture and language have a profound impact on communication in health care. How are hospitals addressing the intersection of these issues when presented with a situation like the one above?  How can hospitals prepare for such situations?  What are some of the underlying factors driving hospital initiatives toward culturally competent, patient-centered care??
This interactive workshop uses key findings from The Joint Commission’s Hospitals, Language, and Culture (HLC) study to explore systems for meeting patient communication needs. The study, funded by The California Endowment, was designed to better understand the challenges faced by our nation’s hospitals as they attempt to address the varied and unique needs of their diverse patient populations. 
As the session traces the experience of this hypothetical patient, the panel will highlight study findings from several angles:
  • The Patient Experience – The panel will discuss how hospital staff, including emergency department, radiology, surgical, housekeeping, and interpreting staff communicate with Mr. Lopez and address his cultural health belief.
  • The Leadership Perspective – The panel will discuss findings from qualitative analysis of the factors that motivate hospital CEOs to make the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate care a priority
  • A Framework for Action – The panel will give real-life examples of some practices that hospitals have effectively used to meet the cultural and linguistic needs of diverse patients. A self-assessment tool will also be presented that hospitals can use to identify how to take action to enhance their ability to meet the needs of diverse patient populations.
Participants will discuss and share how their own organization provides care to patients like Juan Lopez.  Using the framework presented in the HLC study’s One Size Does Not Fit All: Meeting the Health Care Needs of Diverse Populations report, participants will also consider ways to improve current practices and continue to drive initiatives forward. 
Using questions from the report’s self-assessment tool, the audience will be engaged in a discussion about implementing systems and practices that meet the needs of diverse patients. Panelists will provide their own perspectives, share findings from the HLC study, and discuss real-life applications of the recommendations from the HLC study.
Handouts
  • Resource for Effective Communication Session.pdf (19.6 kB)
  • Fairview Diversity Initiative In Brief.pdf (49.3 kB)
  • HLC Project Newsletter Summer 2008.pdf (1014.9 kB)

    • Presentation Information:

    Program: Main Conference Concurrent Workshops
    Primary Category: Culturally Competent Care
    Subtopics: Clinical interactions, Observational/descriptive studies, clinicial use of interpreters

    Region Addressed by Presentation: National
    Organization: Hospital
    Population/Demographic: LEP with Cultural health beliefs
    Keywords: Language Access, Patient Care and safety, Cost benefit, Promising Practices
    Amy Wilson-Stronks, MPP, CPHQ , Division of Standards and Survey Methods, The Joint Commission, Oakbrook Terrace, IL
      Project Director
      The Joint Commission
      Division of Standards and Survey Methods
      One Renaissance Boulevard
      Oakbrook Terrace IL, USA 60181

      Phone: 630-792-5954
      Email Address: awilson-stronks@jointcommission.org

      Biographical Sketch:       Amy Wilson-Stronks, M.P.P., C.P.H.Q., is a Project Director in the Division of Standards and Survey Methods and the Principal Investigator for the Joint Commission study Hospitals, Language, and Culture: A Snapshot of the Nation a project funded by The California Endowment. She is the co-author of Hospitals, Language, and Culture: A Snapshot of the Nation Report of Findings released in March 2007. Ms. Wilson-Stronks has been a leader of the Joint Commission’s work in the area of culturally and linguistically appropriate patient-centered care and health care disparities. She is leading ongoing research investigations of the data collected during the Hospitals, Language, and Culture project. She is also directing the work of The Joint Commission to assess and evaluate accreditation standards related to culturally and linguistically appropriate services and is developing a comprehensive surveyor training program on issues related to culturally and linguistically appropriate services. She represents The Joint Commission on a number of National Advisory Committees on subjects related to the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate services. Ms. Wilson-Stronks earned her Master of Public Policy in Health Policy and a Graduate Certificate in Health Administration and Policy from the University of Chicago. Her studies explored poverty, health inequalities, and health status. She is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) and is responsible for the development and maintenance of Joint Commission standards and survey processes. In her free time she serves as a Board Member of the ALS Association Greater Chicago Chapter working to improve services for persons with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and their families.
    Sunita Mutha, MD , Center for the Health Professions, UCSF, San Francisco, CA
      Associate Professor of Medicine
      UCSF
      Center for the Health Professions
      3333 California Street
      Suite 410
      San Francisco CA, USA 94118

      Phone: 415-502-4991
      Fax: 415-502-4992
      Email Address: sunita.mutha@ucsf.edu

      Biographical Sketch:       Dr. Mutha is a faculty member and primary care physician at the University of California, San Francisco. Her scholarly work focuses on educational and organizational approaches to improving the quality of care for diverse populations. She was the principal investigator for a multi-year project in which safety net hospitals collaboratively applied rapid cycle improvement methods in order to reduce cultural and linguistic barriers to care. Currently she is involved in studies looking at what motivates hospital leaders to make culturally competent care a priority, the feasibility of integrating cultural competence into Pay-for-Performance, and regional mechanisms for increasing capacity among staff and leaders in delivering culturally competent care. She also has extensive experience in developing curricula and conducting cultural competence faculty and leadership training for a wide range of health professionals, including physicians, nurses, pharmacist, and allied health.
    Elizabeth Jacobs, MD, MPP , Rush University Medical Center
      Associate Professor of Medicine
      Rush University Medical Center

      Email Address: elizabeth_jacobs@rush.edu

      Biographical Sketch:       Elizabeth A. Jacobs, MD MAPP. Dr. Jacobs is a Clinician-researcher and Associate Professor of Medicine at The John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County and Rush University Medical Center. She attended medical school at University of California at San Francisco, trained as a general internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and completed a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Fellowship at the University of Chicago. After struggling to care for limited English-speaking patients during medical school and residency, she decided to pursue a research career investigating minority disparities in health care. She has done research documenting that provision of adequate interpreter services positively impacts the delivery of health care provided to patients with limited English proficiency and that the provision of these services are cost-beneficial. Her research interests also include access to, and cultural specificity of, medical care delivered to minority patients, health literacy, and the role that trust in health care plays in African American and Latino patients health care decisions. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The California Endowment, The Russell Sage Foundation and the Office of Minority Health. She is recognized as an expert on the provision of linguistically accessible and culturally competent care and has served on Office of Minority Health, JCAHO and AHRQ expert panels. She has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and authored 3 book chapters. In addition, she cares for patients in a public hospital general medicine clinic, works with other investigators to design culturally specific research, and teaches residents and medical students about practicing culturally sensitive medicine.
    Romana Hasnain-Wynia, PhD , Center for Health Care Equity, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL
      Director
      Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine
      Center for Health Care Equity
      750 N. Lakeshore Drive
      10th Floor
      Chicago IL, USA 60611

      Phone: 312-503-6400
      Email Address: r-hasnainwynia@northwestern.edu

      Biographical Sketch:       Dr. Hasnain-Wynia (Romana) is Director, Center for Healthcare Equity and Research Associate Professor at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. Prior to joining Northwestern University, Romana was the Vice President of research for the Health Research and Educational Trust, the research and educational affiliate of the American Hospital Association. Romana is an expert in health disparities research and serves as the principal investigator for a number of national studies related to the collection and use of patient demographic data to improve quality of care and has published extensively in this area. She is the lead author of the HRET Disparities Toolkit for Collecting Race, Ethnicity and Primary Language Information from Patients. She serves on a number of national expert advisory panels and is currently a senior advisor to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations on the project, Hospitals, Language and Culture: A Snapshot of the Nation and to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's national initiative to reduce disparities in cardiac care, Expecting Success: Excellence in Cardiac Care. Romana is Senior Associate Editor for the journal, Health Services Research.
    Susan Plaster , Diversity Department, Fairview Health Services, Minneapolis, MN
      Director of Diversity
      Fairview Health Services
      Diversity Department
      2450 Riverside Ave. S.
      Minneapolis MN, USA 55455

      Phone: 612-672-4949
      Fax: 612-672-4951
      Email Address: splaster@fairview.org

      Biographical Sketch:       Sue Plaster guides Fairview’s system-wide diversity initiative, focused in three strategic areas: culturally competent care, workforce diversity and welcoming environment. She guides policy, vision, strategy and practice related to inclusion and cultural responsiveness. Sue works with leaders, managers and individual employees to advance their diversity learning, and help them take appropriate action to address diversity issues and opportunities. Previously, Sue was Director of Leadership, Mobility and Succession Planning for Honeywell, Inc. with responsibility for international assignees, leadership development, and talent review and succession in the worldwide organization. Sue holds a master’s degree in education from the University of Minnesota, with a concentration in leadership development. Her bachelor’s degree is in English, education and speech from the College of St. Catherine.
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