Diamond Lisa C, Mujawar Imran, Vickstrom Erik, Garzon Margaux Genoff, Gany Francesca
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
J Gen Intern Med. 2020 Aug;35(8):2289-2295. doi: 10.1007/s11606-020-05935-7. Epub 2020 Jun 2.
Over 25 million US inhabitants are limited English proficient (LEP). It is unknown whether physicians fluent in non-English languages are training in geographic areas with the highest proportion of LEP people. Diversity of language ability in the physician workforce is an important complement to language assistance services for providing quality care to LEP patients.
To determine whether non-English language-speaking resident physicians matched in the geographic areas where language skills are needed.
Cross-sectional study.
Postgraduate medical training applicants to the Association of American Medical College's Electronic Residency Application Service in 2013-2014 (n = 50,766). We included data from the Graduate Medical Education Track database, mapped against American Community Survey data.
N/A.
We assessed the geographic alignment of non-English language-speaking resident physicians relative to the distribution of the LEP-speaking population.
While 37% of resident physicians spoke at least one non-English language, in most cases the languages they spoke were not those in greatest need by the US LEP population. LEP speakers' potential exposure to non-English language-speaking residents varied. For Spanish, the language with the lowest national resident physician to Spanish LEP patient ratio, the ratio was most favorable in New York at 23.7/100,000 LEP population versus 5.1 in Los Angeles. For Tagalog, the group with the highest geographic mismatch, the ratio was 70.4 in New York but 0 in San Diego, San Jose, and Seattle. Among the top five LEP languages in the USA, Chinese-speaking resident physicians were the most geographically matched.
We found considerable misalignment of the geographic distribution of non-English language-speaking resident physicians relative to the distribution of the LEP-speaking population. Residency programs in areas of high need could consider better matching the non-English language needs of their community with the language abilities of the resident physicians they are recruiting.
超过2500万美国居民英语水平有限（LEP）。目前尚不清楚精通非英语语言的医生是否在LEP人群比例最高的地理区域接受培训。医生队伍中语言能力的多样性是为LEP患者提供优质护理的语言援助服务的重要补充。
确定非英语语言的住院医师是否与需要语言技能的地理区域相匹配。
横断面研究。
2013 - 2014年向美国医学院协会电子住院医师申请服务系统提交研究生医学培训申请的人员（n = 50,766）。我们纳入了研究生医学教育跟踪数据库的数据，并与美国社区调查数据进行比对。
无。
我们评估了非英语语言的住院医师与说LEP语言人群分布的地理匹配情况。
虽然37%的住院医师至少会说一种非英语语言，但在大多数情况下，他们所说的语言并非美国LEP人群最需要的语言。说LEP语言的人接触非英语语言住院医师的可能性各不相同。对于西班牙语，这是全国住院医师与说西班牙语的LEP患者比例最低的语言，该比例在纽约最为有利，为每10万LEP人群中有23.7名住院医师，而在洛杉矶为5.1名。对于他加禄语，地理不匹配程度最高的群体，该比例在纽约为70.4，但在圣地亚哥、圣何塞和西雅图为0。在美国LEP语言排名前五的语言中，说中文的住院医师在地理上匹配度最高。
我们发现非英语语言的住院医师地理分布与说LEP语言人群的分布存在相当大的不匹配。需求高的地区的住院医师培训项目可以考虑更好地将其社区的非英语语言需求与他们招募的住院医师的语言能力相匹配。
