Friday, April 19, 2024
4/19/2024
University Health serves a 28 county service region in South Texas that includes Bexar County, Texas. Bexar County is the largest population center of South Texas with a total population of almost 2 million residents and includes the San Antonio metropolitan region (the seventh largest in the U.S.). In 2021, San Antonio was the fourth largest destination for Afghan evacuees due to the large Afghan community already residing in the city. Since the majority of non-English speaking individuals in Bexar County speak Spanish, this community has been overlooked and has not had the benefit of easy access to language services in Pashto. This is the case for several less commonly spoken languages in Bexar County including Arabic, Swahili, and numerous Asian languages. To accommodate the anticipated growth in need of additional services for limited English proficient (LEP) patients, Bexar County Hospital District dba University Health proposes Building Bridges to Better Health, a program to provide equitable access to healthcare among LEP populations by implementing a certified medical interpreter program to serve this growing immigrant community. Building Bridges to Better Health consists of a community awareness campaign to increase local knowledge of medical interpretation careers in populations with a high proportion of LEP individuals and an expansion of University Health’s language services to underserved LEP populations. The awareness campaign will leverage existing relationships with community organizations who are already embedded within these populations to broaden its reach and penetration. Simultaneously, University Health will open four full-time, non-Spanish medical interpreter positions and utilize the awareness campaign to recruit highly qualified candidates. The medical interpreter recruits will be required to complete a 40 to 60-hour medical interpretation training course and receive a medical interpreter certification from the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI) which is accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA). This will be followed by orientation and training in University Health’s processes and policies. The team will be deployed to the areas of greatest need based on an internal survey of University Health’s hospital and 26 outpatient clinics, where 1) cultural sensitivity may require an interpreter of a particular gender (e.g. Ob-Gyn visits), 2) there are high rates of ad-hoc interpreters or no interpreter present for LEP individuals, 3) the current available modes of interpretation are inadequate for the kind of medical visit or procedure being performed. Three interpreters will be assigned to a centralized location to provide video and phone interpretation and one interpreter will be assigned to provide live interpretation services on a rotating basis at a clinical site. The live interpreter will be scheduled to a University Health campus for the day based on the internal survey above, the daily schedule of LEP individuals, and interpretation requests. The live interpreter will also serve as the on-call interpreter for the assigned campus in the case of emergencies or walk-ins. Baseline data on the use of interpreters and mode of interpretation for the targeted LEP populations will be gathered to determine the quantitative increase in language services performed. Additionally, a survey will be sent to clinic managers and providers to ascertain the qualitative effectiveness of the program including ease of scheduling, performance of video interpretation, and performance of live interpretation. Feedback on improvements to the Building Bridges to Better Health program will be solicited and the program will be re-evaluated based on this data. Improvements that come to light in these processes will be implemented in the third year with the goal of increasing live interpretation by 20% over the second year of the program and 30% over the third year
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
