This case study will analyze the quality of patient engagement activities and interaction techniques employed by Montefiore Medical Center. This health organization primarily renders services to people of New York City from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Although the medical center attempts to employ effective strategies to reach cross-cultural inclusivity, their measures are not enough to satisfy the needs of their patients from non-dominant cultural backgrounds.
Montefiore Medical Center’s primary patients come from Bronx county, where more than half of its population does not speak the English language at home (Deborah, 2010). To address this issue, the medical center hired interpreters and translators who are available via phone and can communicate in more than 150 languages. Additionally, as a quarter of a million people in America have impairment in hearing, health providers of the organizations are trained and instructed to use resources to communicate with such patients (“Interpreting services program,” n.d.). These resources include teletypewriter, closed captioning, communicards, and other means for interacting. Although these communication techniques partially solve the problem, they are not effective in the case of an emergency, when every second matters. If health providers spend those moments trying to connect with an interpreter or navigating through resources for deaf people, it could cost a patient’s life. Moreover, even though it is claimed that translators are available at any time, in practice, they can be busy with other patients or responsibilities and might be unavailable at the moment. Such logistical issues can be an obstacle and can lead to irreversible health outcomes for a non-English speaker.
The medical center provides educational events, such as healthy cooking programs for obese patients and readings for young patients. To accommodate the needs of different ethnic groups, the organization hires personnel with Hispanic, Cambodian, and Vietnamese backgrounds (Deborah, 2010). Even though there are apparent attempts to create culturally inclusive space within the center, the abovementioned list is not all-encompassing. This strategy will be ineffective when encountering people of Native American, Chinese or Arab descent. Also, it is claimed in a case study that the medical center created educational resources that would accommodate the needs of patients from various ethnic, language, and cultural backgrounds (Deborah, 2010). However, how exactly they achieved that arduous task is not defined.
Montefiore’s website claims they are highly considerate of providing culturally competent patient care. In addition, they strive toward eliminating barriers associated with differing lifestyles, language, (dis) abilities, cultural norms, and financial status. Therefore, they provide educational content and training for its workers on beliefs, norms, behaviors, and communication methods of different cultures and subcultures, including the LGBTQ community. However, it is not clarified whether these trainings are mandatory, whether they are mandatory for all staff members, and whether they are available to interpreters and translators. These training will not be efficient unless they are mandatory for all staff members, including physicians, as well as for interpreters.
It is written in the case document written by Deborah (2010) that the organization managed to optimize communication strategies with patients through online interaction, mainly via certain messengers and e-mails. However, a simple visit to their website will reveal that website utilities and information are available only to English and Spanish speakers. This improvement excludes patients who speak languages other than the listed two, which reveals the exclusivity in organization’s community strategies. Moreover, not everyone have access to computers and to the internet connection, especially among members of lower socioeconomic class. Thus, the Montefiore Medical Center should explore more inclusive strategies to improve communication methods.
References
Interpreting services program. Presentation, Montefiore Medical Center.
Deborah, C. (2010). Montefiore Medical Center: Integrated Care Delivery for Vulnerable Populations. The Commonwealth Fund