Addressing Gaps in Language Access Services through a Patient-Centered Decision-Support Tool

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Project Summary Despite policies that mandate language access in healthcare settings, the growing population of individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) in the United States encounters language barriers in the medical system that negatively impact patient outcomes and cause significant burdens on the health systems that struggle to deliver equitable care. This project will develop and pilot a technology-enabled platform called Latitude as a comprehensive tool that will allow providers to quickly get information about available language services for a particular patient, and seamlessly implement these services into their care plan through a point-of-care tools integrated with the Electronic Medical Record. In addition, a Decision-Support Dashboard will support administrators in managing their language services assets setting parameters that govern personalized language support plans for patients. As part of the product development, we will implement a beta version of Latitude at two inpatient hospital systems following a five-step implementation plan. We will then evaluate the effect of the product on three overarching areas of impact: administrative impact (e.g., daily costs associated with language services), patient experience and satisfaction (e.g., through patient surveys such as HCAHP), and patient outcome metrics (e.g., length of hospital stay and rates of readmission). Particular attention will be paid to the user adoption process in order to ready the system for commercial rollout.