Culturally competent health care is good business. Health care organizations that can provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services to their diverse clientele at all points of contact will have better service delivery and health outcomes, while boosting the bottom line.
Clinical staff must be familiar with the diversity of health care beliefs and practices across cultures. Clinical staff should be able to apply cross cultural strategies for effective intake and interviewing, history taking, and delivering bad news.
Non-clinical staff must know how to create a welcoming and helpful environment for LEP clients. They should be able to assess a client’s English language ability and adjust their message to better collect information, communicate processes and give directions.
When both clinical and nonclinical staff can communicate effectively and deal appropriately with clients from different cultures, you will see:
- Decreased medical errors
- Decreased medical costs
- Increased patient satisfaction
- Improved primary and preventative care
- Improved patient comprehension of treatment
- Improved patient completion of treatment and health care outcomes
- Improved patient/provider relationships
- Improved marketing to a major consumer demographic segment