Impact of Language Barriers on Patient Satisfaction in an Emergency Department

OBJECTIVE: To examine patient satisfaction and willingness to return to an emergency department (ED) among non‐English speakers. DESIGN: Cross‐sectional survey and follow‐up interviews 10 days after ED visit. SETTING: Five urban teaching hospital EDs in the Northeastern United States. PATIENTS: We s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of general internal medicine : JGIM 1999-02, Vol.14 (2), p.82-87
Main Authors: Carrasquillo, Olveen, Orav, E. John, Brennan, Troyen A., Burstin, Helen R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy
Biological and medical sciences
Communication Barriers
Complaints
Cross-Sectional Studies
Data Collection
Emergency and intensive care: techniques, logistics
Emergency medical care
Emergency Service, Hospital - standards
Emergency Service, Hospital - statistics & numerical data
Ethnicity
Female
Health care access
Hispanic Americans
Hospitals
Humans
Intensive care medicine
Intensive care unit. Emergency transport systems. Emergency, hospital ward
Internal medicine
Interviews
Language
Male
Massachusetts
Medicaid
Medical sciences
Medicine
Middle Aged
Multivariate Analysis
Odds Ratio
Outcome Assessment (Health Care) - methods
Patient satisfaction
Patient Satisfaction - statistics & numerical data
Primary care
Questionnaires
Womens health
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Summary:OBJECTIVE: To examine patient satisfaction and willingness to return to an emergency department (ED) among non‐English speakers. DESIGN: Cross‐sectional survey and follow‐up interviews 10 days after ED visit. SETTING: Five urban teaching hospital EDs in the Northeastern United States. PATIENTS: We surveyed 2,333 patients who presented to the ED with one of six chief complaints. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Patient satisfaction. willingness to return to the same ED if emergency care was needed, and patient‐reported problems with care were measured. Three hundred fifty‐four (15%) of the patients reported English was not their primary language. Using an overall measure of patient satisfaction, only 52% of non‐English‐speaking patients were satisfied as compared with 71% of English speakers (p
ISSN:0884-8734
1525-1497
DOI:10.1046/j.1525-1497.1999.00293.x