The role of culturally competent communication in reducing ethnic and racial healthcare disparities.
PubMedPublished 1 January 2004Open access
Stephanie L. Taylor, Nicole Lurie
Citations95
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
TL;DR
This commentary summarizes the importance of culturally competent communication across several levels of the healthcare system and details concrete steps that managed care organizations can take to maximize their ability to provide culturally Competent communication and care.
Abstract
Promoting culturally competent communication at the provider, care institution, health plan, and national levels is likely to contribute to success in reducing racial and ethnic disparities in the receipt of high quality care. Although some health plans recently have shown interest in addressing racial and ethnic disparities in care, very few have addressed how health plans can improve their cultural competency to reduce disparities. This commentary summarizes the importance of culturally competent communication across several levels of the healthcare system and details concrete steps that managed care organizations can take to maximize their ability to provide culturally competent communication and care.
Keywords
Social SciencesHealth Professions
Choice Reviews OnlineUnequal treatment: confronting racial and ethnic disparities in health care
7,044 Citations2003A. L. Nelson
A heating element includes an elongated tubular sheath which confines a resistance wire supported by a thermally conductive electrical insulation material which extends to a position flush with the end surface of the sheath.
Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture
4,745 Citations1980Arthur Kleinman
This book discusses the construction of Illness Experience and Behavior in Chinese Culture in the context of Health Care Systems, Culture, Health Care systems, and Clinical Reality and its consequences.
JAMAChanging physician performance. A systematic review of the effect of continuing medical education strategies
2,602 Citations1995D A Davis
New England Journal of MedicineThe Effect of Race and Sex on Physicians' Recommendations for Cardiac Catheterization
1,960 Citations1999Kevin A. Schulman, Jesse A. Berlin +11 more
It is suggested that the race and sex of a patient independently influence how physicians manage chest pain.
Social Science & MedicineThe effect of patient race and socio-economic status on physicians' perceptions of patients
1,504 Citations2000Michelle van Ryn, Jane K. Burke-Miller
The hypothesis that physicians' perceptions of patients were influenced by patients' socio-demographic characteristics was supported, with results supported by survey data.
Medical Care Research and ReviewCan Cultural Competency Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities? A Review and Conceptual Model
1,161 Citations2000Cindy Brach, Irene Fraserirector
A conceptual model of cultural competency’s potential to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities is developed, using the cultural Competency and disparities literature to lay the foundation for the model and inform assessments of its validity.
PEDIATRICSErrors in Medical Interpretation and Their Potential Clinical Consequences in Pediatric Encounters
1,107 Citations2003Glenn Flores, M. Barton Laws +5 more
Errors in medical interpretation are common, averaging 31 per clinical encounter, and omissions are the most frequent type, and third-party reimbursement for trained interpreter services should be considered for patients with limited English proficiency.
Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent MedicineAccess Barriers to Health Care for Latino Children
456 Citations1998Glenn Flores, Milagros Abreu +2 more
Parents identified language problems, cultural differences, poverty, lack of health insurance, transportation difficulties, and long waiting times as the major access barriers to health care for Latino children.
PubMedEvidence on patient-doctor communication.
454 Citations1999Moira Stewart, Janis Brown +4 more
This chapter covers important and well-studied aspects of patient-doctor communication, including communication in relation to patient adherence with the management plan recommended by the doctor and the final topic is patients' health.
JAMAAssociation Between Use of Unconventional Therapies and Conventional Medical Services
423 Citations1999Benjamin G. Druss
In this sample, use of unconventional therapies was substantially lower than has been reported in previous national surveys, but was associated with increased use of physician services.
American Journal of Public HealthOvercoming Language Barriers in Health Care: Costs and Benefits of Interpreter Services
383 Citations2004Elizabeth A. Jacobs, Donald S. Shepard +2 more
Compared with English-speaking patients, patients who used the interpreter services received significantly more recommended preventive services, made more office visits, and had more prescriptions written and filled.
Medical Care Research and ReviewLimited English Proficiency and Latinos’ Use of Physician Services
374 Citations2000Kathryn Pitkin Derose, David W. Baker
The magnitude of the association between limited English proficiency and number of physician visits was similar to that for having poor health, no health insurance, or no regular source of care.
Medical CareLanguage Concordance as a Determinant of Patient Compliance and Emergency Room Use in Patients with Asthma
362 Citations1988A Manson
It is suggested that patient compliance and more cost-effective use of ambulatory care services may be associated with the ability of physicians to speak the same language as their patients.
Social Science & MedicineWhen nurses double as interpreters: a study of Spanish-speaking patients in a US primary care setting
320 Citations2001Virginia Elderkin‐Thompson, Roxane Cohen Silver +1 more
It is concluded that errors occur frequently in interpretations provided by untrained nurse-interpreters during cross-language encounters, so complaints of many non-English-speaking patients may be misunderstood by their physicians.
Medical CareThe Effects of Ethnicity and Language on Medical Outcomes of Patients with Hypertension or Diabetes
289 Citations1997Eliseo J. Pérez‐Stable, Anna Nápoles‐Springer +1 more
Kaplan et a15 found that effectiveness of information gathering by patients, more conversation by patients relative to physicians, and more affective exchange between patients and physicians were specific aspects of patient-physician communication associated with better health outcomes.
Care management journalsThe National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care
282 Citations2002Mary Curry Narayan
Each of the 14 CLAS standards is described and strategies for meeting the cultural and linguistic needs of home health care patients are suggested.
PubMedRacial and ethnic differences in parents' assessments of pediatric care in Medicaid managed care.
213 Citations2001Robert Weech‐Maldonado, Leo S. Morales +3 more
The finding that language barriers are largely responsible for racial/ethnic disparities in care suggests that linguistically appropriate health care services are needed to address these gaps.
WHO, WHEN, AND HOW: THE CURRENT STATE OF RACE, ETHNICITY, AND PRIMARY LANGUAGE DATA COLLECTION IN HOSPITALS
73 Citations2004Mary Pittman, Debra Pierce +1 more
Despite a commitment to collecting race and ethnicity data about patients, there are no consistent policies and practices in place and among hospitals that collect data on race/ethnicity, 70 percent did not see any drawbacks to collecting the data.
Journal of Health Care for the Poor and UnderservedImproving Access for Limited English-Speaking Consumers: A Review of Strategies in Health Care Settings
66 Citations1998Sherry Riddick
A spectrum of strategies that overcome barriers to care are examined, including the use of bilingual providers, bilingual/bicultural community health workers, professional and nonprofessional interpreters, and new approaches to interpretation that use technological advances.
PubMedChanging healthcare professionals' behaviors to eliminate disparities in healthcare: What do we know? How might we proceed?
57 Citations2004Ronnie D. Horner, William Salazar +5 more
A working group was formed by the Office of Minority Health, Department of Health and Human Services to identify strategies for improving healthcare providers' cultural competency, and proposed interventions included introduction of cultural competence education before, during, and after clinical training.
PubMedMulticultural curricula in family practice residencies.
51 Citations2000Kathleen A. Culhane‐Pera, Robert C. Like +2 more
There was a marked increase in the prevalence of multicultural curricula in family practice residencies from 1985 to 1998 and the current status and content of the curricula was identified.
PubMedCultural competency as it intersects with racial/ethnic, linguistic, and class disparities in managed healthcare organizations.
36 Citations2004Ruth Enid Zambrana, Christine Molnar +2 more
Strategies to reduce disparities in access to healthcare that call for partnerships across government agencies and between federal and state governments, provider institutions, and community organizations are identified.
Academic MedicineIntroducing students to the role of folk and popular health belief-systems in patient care
29 Citations1992Harriet Rubenstein, Brenna OConnor +2 more
PubMedHealthcare disparities and models for change.
24 Citations2004Claudia R. Baquet, Olivia Carter‐Pokras +1 more
Working models that have successfully reduced health disparities in managed care settings were presented at the National Managed Health Care Congress Inaugural Forum on Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care on March 10-11, 2003, in Washington, DC.
PubMedDistributive justice in American healthcare: institutions, power, and the equitable care of patients.
21 Citations2004Robert W. Putsch, Linda H. Pololi
The authors argue that the American healthcare system has developed in a fashion that permits and may support ongoing, widespread inequities based on poverty, race, gender, and ethnicity and recommend establishment of core attributes of trust, relationship and advocacy in health systems; universal healthcare; and insurance systems based on mutual aid.