Communication is crucial when a patient is meeting with a healthcare professional to talk about their care plan. But what happens when this communication is compromised?
A new study suggests that the quality of translation for non-English speaking patients in American hospitals could have a direct impact on the safety of the patient. Published in the new issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine, the study involved researchers comparing the services of professional interpreters versus amateur interpreters or nonexistent interpreters. They conducted their tests by looking at 57 different Spanish speaking families at two different pediatric emergency rooms.
What they found was that 12% of translation miscues committed by professional interpreters could have resulted in an error that might have negative consequences for the child being treated. By contrast, having no interpreter or just having an amateur such as a bilingual family member relate information carried a 20 to 22% rate of consequential error.
The number of errors also tended to decrease the more experienced the translator was. Those persons with more than 100 hours of training fared best, as could be imagined. Not clear is how well such translators would fare against video and phone translation services, which are offered at some hospitals. Further studies will have to be done.
As a personal injury lawyer in Riverside, I understand how important it is for a patient and a physician to be on the same page. Miscommunication can breed errors in medical treatment, which can prevent proper healing. I hope as a San Francisco personal injury attorney that more research can be conducted in this important area so that no one is endangered by improperly administered medicine.
Various news sources have reported that the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center has been inspected and allegedly found to not be up to federal hygiene standards. According to federal inspection reports, the Hospital’s operating rooms weren’t kept clean, which provides an unsafe environment to its patients who could be exposed to possible infections.
As stated in the news article, rooms were cluttered and filled with dust. The humidity level was wrong and the hospital staff wasn’t properly washing their hands according to the strong policy that rules health care providing facilities.
The reports show that a sanitary environment wasn’t kept and that the hospital struggles due the limits they face by working from an allegedly old facility. Los Angeles County has stated there’s another Hospital being built and that it will be fully completed in 2013. Until then, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center must work with what they have and fix the problems federal inspections have pointed out.
As a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer I urge you to keep up with the news regarding the sanitary conditions of facilities we depend on to take care of us in cases of emergencies. Making sure clients are safe in the facilities they are taken to recover is a major priority to any personal injury lawyer.
While most people associate hospitals with getting healthier, it is sometimes the case that patients who go to a hospital for treatment actually end up getting sicker there than they were to begin with. Consumer advocacy groups are continually trying to make hospitals safer places for patients. According to member of the Safe Patient Project, following these suggestions can help you stay safe in hospitals.
- Watch a video of the surgery you’re planning on getting. Advocate research suggests that patients misunderstand the severity of procedure that they are undergoing, and thus approach it as well as the recovery lightly. The reality may surprise you, and prepare you for what you are going to endure.
- Check the internet for user reviews of the hospital you are hoing to use. Sites like Yelp! could notify you of some of the problems other patients had.
- As a malpractice attorney for Doctor recommendations. They’ve seen a lot, and can often tell you which ones have good reputations and which ones you may want to avoid for certain procedures.
- Bring a device with internet access to the hospital. You never know what you may want to look up on the fly.
- The most important thing you can do is to bring someone with you whom you can trust. They can act in your place should an emergency arise, and can be your eyes and ears if you are in a position where you cannot observe what is happening.
As a Los Angeles wrongful death lawyer, I know how important it is to document medical problems you may have had during a hospital stay. If you or someone you know was injured in a hospital, it’s in your best interest to contact a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer as soon as possible in order to evaluate your legal options.
