Diversity in health care is one of the most critical issues as people need medical services regardless of their gender, age, race, or social status. I agree with the ideas presented in this post, and I like the author’s approach, especially the question about communication for non-English speaking patients. However, I cannot fully agree that effective communication is more important than profit, and I believe that they are equally essential as they depend on each other.
The idea of valuing patients and staff’s strengths and treating all people with respect is fundamental to promoting diversity in healthcare. I agree with this thesis, and I like how the author found the connection between the healthcare situation and the article that does not apply to it. However, the claim that effective communication is more important than profit is debatable, since the hospital’s income determines the resources it can use to serve patients. For example, if a hospital does not have funds, it cannot use the language line discussed in the post, which will reduce the quality of services and patient satisfaction. Consequently, communication efficiency will decline as well as patient satisfaction. Moreover, according to Lim et al. (2018), patient satisfaction affects the financial performance of a hospital, since patients remain loyal and ask for services again instead of looking for a new provider. IIn addition, a lack of profit can cause a reduction in staff, the inability to buy new equipment or provide more comfortable conditions for patients that need special conditions. Hence, this situation can cause even more barriers to promoting diversity.
Therefore, this example shows that the quality of communication is essential for promoting diversity in health care; however, it should not be improved at the expense of hospital profits. At the same time, the increase in profits due to the deterioration of the communication quality is also unethical and ineffective, since it has a short-term effect. These two components are interrelated and are equally important in providing services to patients of different social status, race, gender, or age.
Reference
Lim, J.-S., Lim, K.-S., Heinrichs, J. H., Al-Aali, K., Aamir, A., & Qureshi, M. I. (2018). The role of hospital service quality in developing the satisfaction of the patients and hospital performance.Management Science Letters, 8, 1353–1362. Web.