INTERVIEW

Interview



Interview

The interview was taken on Thursday October 12, 2009. It was telephonic interview, which was based on a questionnaire that was prepared for this interview. The interviewee was a representative of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, North Shore (LIJ) Medical Health Systems.

Language barriers can have a significant adverse impact on health and health care including lower health status; lower likelihood of having a usual source of care; lower rates of receipt of preventive health services; increased risk of drug complications;10 and greater resource utilization for diagnostic testing.11 Spanish-speaking patients and Spanish-speaking parents of pediatric patients report lower satisfaction with care, worse communication with their providers, worse access to care, and worse customer service from managed care organizations compared to their English-speaking counterparts.

Long Island Jewish Medical Center has an effective multilingual support system in practice. Every unit in the Long Island Jewish Medical Center provides language access services to patient. The services are free of cost and a part of the Policy of the hospital. including their rights are given on admission, Signs are in clear site, in the lobby as you enter the hospital, in waiting areas, by the elevators, hallways, pamphlets, flyers, it's a part of the admission papers. The hospital provides language access services to all the different languages- You name it Italian, Greek, Russian.

In August of 2000, President Clinton issued executive order 13166 entitled “Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency.” This requires every federal agency providing financial assistance to non-federal entities to publish guidance on how recipients can provide meaningful access to limited English proficient persons in order to comply with Title VI regulations. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health issued National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care (CLAS standards) in December 2000. 

New York Law requires licensed general ...