Report Explores Challenges of Providing Hospital Care With Language Barriers

OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. – A new Joint Commission report recommends targeted strategies to address language and cultural issues that increasingly pose challenges to hospitals seeking to deliver safe, effective care to diverse American population.

The recommendations in Joint Commission Web site.

Last month, the Joint Commission released a public policy white paper, “‘What Did the Doctor Say?:’ Improving Health Literacy to Protect Patient Safety,” which frames the existing communications gap between patients and caregivers as a series of challenges involving literacy, language, and culture, and suggests multiple steps that need to be taken to narrow or even close this gap. Far too often, ordinary citizens are placed at risk for unsafe care because important health care information is communicated using medical jargon and unclear language that exceed their literacy skills. A complete copy of this paper is also available at no charge on the Joint Commission website.

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A Joint Commission press release.

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