Open Forum

Hi All,

I manage a team of 20 Chronic Care Nurse Navigators. I am limited on the number of nurses who are bilingual. I have had providers specifically request that all Spanish speaking patients be assigned to a Spanish speaking nurse navigator. Our model includes that the nurse navigator is embedded in the clinic so she/he is able to attend office visits and have nurse visits with their panel of patients. I obviously do not have the bandwidth to accommodate the providers' request to have all Spanish speaking patients assigned to one nurse but was wondering if anyone has experienced something similar and if so, how did you mitigate? To add to the language barrier, the patient population includes low literacy, chronic comorbidities, multiple SDOH.

Thoughts?

Hi Roxanne, 

I manage a clinic for the underserved. A large majority of our patients are Spanish speaking with the same SDOH as yours. Our organization pays for an interpreter service. We have access to more than 70 languages. We have a number of IPADS in the department. We may call the interpreters via voice or video. Most days we will advise the interpreter that we will need them for an hour , two hours depending on how. many patients. We seem to do ok with it. Hope this helps. 

Hi All,

I manage a team of 20 Chronic Care Nurse Navigators. I am limited on the number of nurses who are bilingual. I have had providers specifically request that all Spanish speaking patients be assigned to a Spanish speaking nurse navigator. Our model includes that the nurse navigator is embedded in the clinic so she/he is able to attend office visits and have nurse visits with their panel of patients. I obviously do not have the bandwidth to accommodate the providers' request to have all Spanish speaking patients assigned to one nurse but was wondering if anyone has experienced something similar and if so, how did you mitigate? To add to the language barrier, the patient population includes low literacy, chronic comorbidities, multiple SDOH.

Thoughts?

First of all, thank you for having a team of chronic care nurse navigators! Here's hoping that spreads to the state of North Carolina where I live.

What we learned when supporting practices through their journey to becoming a patient-centered medical home is that they were  unaware of the Civil Rights Act requiring communication in the patient's preferred language (i.e. access to interpreter services) if the entity receives federal funds like Medicare and Medicaid.  

Here is a patient - facing fact sheet https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ocr/civilrights/resources/factsheets/yourrightsundertitleviofthecivilrightsact.pdf

and the OCR page for providers of healthcare and social services: https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-providers/provider-obligations/index.html

Hi Roxanne, 

I manage a clinic for the underserved. A large majority of our patients are Spanish speaking with the same SDOH as yours. Our organization pays for an interpreter service. We have access to more than 70 languages. We have a number of IPADS in the department. We may call the interpreters via voice or video. Most days we will advise the interpreter that we will need them for an hour , two hours depending on how. many patients. We seem to do ok with it. Hope this helps. 

Hi All,

I manage a team of 20 Chronic Care Nurse Navigators. I am limited on the number of nurses who are bilingual. I have had providers specifically request that all Spanish speaking patients be assigned to a Spanish speaking nurse navigator. Our model includes that the nurse navigator is embedded in the clinic so she/he is able to attend office visits and have nurse visits with their panel of patients. I obviously do not have the bandwidth to accommodate the providers' request to have all Spanish speaking patients assigned to one nurse but was wondering if anyone has experienced something similar and if so, how did you mitigate? To add to the language barrier, the patient population includes low literacy, chronic comorbidities, multiple SDOH.

Thoughts?

Hi Roxanne, 

I manage a clinic for the underserved. A large majority of our patients are Spanish speaking with the same SDOH as yours. Our organization pays for an interpreter service. We have access to more than 70 languages. We have a number of IPADS in the department. We may call the interpreters via voice or video. Most days we will advise the interpreter that we will need them for an hour , two hours depending on how. many patients. We seem to do ok with it. Hope this helps. 

Hi All,

I manage a team of 20 Chronic Care Nurse Navigators. I am limited on the number of nurses who are bilingual. I have had providers specifically request that all Spanish speaking patients be assigned to a Spanish speaking nurse navigator. Our model includes that the nurse navigator is embedded in the clinic so she/he is able to attend office visits and have nurse visits with their panel of patients. I obviously do not have the bandwidth to accommodate the providers' request to have all Spanish speaking patients assigned to one nurse but was wondering if anyone has experienced something similar and if so, how did you mitigate? To add to the language barrier, the patient population includes low literacy, chronic comorbidities, multiple SDOH.

Thoughts?

Hi All,

I manage a team of 20 Chronic Care Nurse Navigators. I am limited on the number of nurses who are bilingual. I have had providers specifically request that all Spanish speaking patients be assigned to a Spanish speaking nurse navigator. Our model includes that the nurse navigator is embedded in the clinic so she/he is able to attend office visits and have nurse visits with their panel of patients. I obviously do not have the bandwidth to accommodate the providers' request to have all Spanish speaking patients assigned to one nurse but was wondering if anyone has experienced something similar and if so, how did you mitigate? To add to the language barrier, the patient population includes low literacy, chronic comorbidities, multiple SDOH.

Thoughts?

Hi All,

I manage a team of 20 Chronic Care Nurse Navigators. I am limited on the number of nurses who are bilingual. I have had providers specifically request that all Spanish speaking patients be assigned to a Spanish speaking nurse navigator. Our model includes that the nurse navigator is embedded in the clinic so she/he is able to attend office visits and have nurse visits with their panel of patients. I obviously do not have the bandwidth to accommodate the providers' request to have all Spanish speaking patients assigned to one nurse but was wondering if anyone has experienced something similar and if so, how did you mitigate? To add to the language barrier, the patient population includes low literacy, chronic comorbidities, multiple SDOH.

Thoughts?