Chen Jacob, Cai Xiaoyu, Fernandez Paola Hernandez, Bibi Salma, Rodriguez Hector P
J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2025;36(2):545-571. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2025.a959113.
In March 2022, the California Department of Health Care Services launched the Medical Interpreter Pilot Project to assess the impact of integrating professional medical interpreter services for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) in community health centers (CHCs) that previously relied on bilingual personnel and remote services when language-concordant care was not possible. Implementation lessons were identified using thematic analysis of clinician and staff interviews (n=31) at three pilot CHCs. Facilitators of medical interpreter integration included: 1) leadership-led educational efforts targeted toward clinicians; 2) taking advantage of the benefits of in-person, onsite medical interpreters to assist patients with accessing care; 3) offering flexible, on-demand medical interpreter services; and 4) incremental implementation of interpreter services to help resolve issues before scaling up. Given that CHCs have a wide range of existing capabilities, flexible staffing models for expanding interpreter services are needed to ensure high-quality, timely language access for patients with LEP.
2022年3月，加利福尼亚医疗保健服务部启动了医疗口译试点项目，以评估在社区卫生中心（CHC）为英语水平有限（LEP）的患者整合专业医疗口译服务的影响。此前，当无法提供语言匹配的护理时，这些社区卫生中心依赖双语人员和远程服务。通过对三个试点社区卫生中心的临床医生和工作人员访谈（n = 31）进行主题分析，确定了实施经验教训。整合医疗口译的促进因素包括：1）领导层针对临床医生开展的教育工作；2）利用现场医疗口译员的优势，帮助患者获得医疗服务；3）提供灵活的按需医疗口译服务；4）逐步实施口译服务，以便在扩大规模之前解决问题。鉴于社区卫生中心具备广泛的现有能力，需要灵活的人员配置模式来扩大口译服务，以确保为英语水平有限的患者提供高质量、及时的语言服务。
