Ecosystem for credentialing and supporting a bilingual provider workforce

有限的英语熟练（LEP）患者谁努力了解他们的护理提供者报告难以导航管理和临床程序，导致比他们的英语熟练的同行更差的结果。尽管许多联邦和州的规定要求提供足够的语言帮助，但医疗机构在实施适当服务方面的成功有限。由于缺乏合格的医疗口译员，医院经常使用临时或“双重角色”口译员，其中许多人是双语工作人员，自我报告的医疗流利。虽然方便，有时不可避免，但这种临时口译员更有可能犯关键的翻译错误，可能导致可预防的临床并发症;事实上，已经发现20%的双重角色口译员不适合进行医疗口译。尽管越来越依赖于自我报告双语流利的人员向弱势患者群体提供关键的健康信息，但没有严格和可扩展的方法来评估医疗保健中的双语沟通能力。这一不足不仅使语文服务难以改善，而且使合格的双语人员无法获得应有的承认，也无法获得他们的技能所应获得的职业发展证书。该语言知识专题评估（TALK）计划旨在为双语医疗保健工作人员提供全面的支持生态系统，包括医学双语水平考试，评分员工作流程管理门户网站以及可搜索的认证双语医疗保健人员目录。此外，根据熟练程度考试结果，TALK将提供与考生薄弱领域相匹配的额外语言培训建议，为持续提高他们宝贵的技能创造一个机制。这一系统方法将为促进双语医疗交流的标准化、提高透明度和质量保证提供必要的支持。将通过与管理人员、医疗保健工作者、评估测试评分员和其他相关利益相关者一起实施来评估该方法的有效性。

Limited English proficient (LEP) patients who struggle to understand their care providers report difficulty navigating both administrative and clinical procedures, leading to poorer outcomes than their English-proficient counterparts. Despite numerous federal and state mandates requiring adequate language assistance, healthcare organizations have had limited success in implementing appropriate services. Facing a shortage of certified medical interpreters, hospitals frequently utilize ad hoc or “dual role” interpreters, many of whom are bilingual staff with self-reported medical fluency. While convenient and sometimes unavoidable, such ad hoc interpreters are more likely to make critical translation errors that can potentially lead to preventable clinical complications; in fact, it has been found that 20% of dual role interpreters are unfit to perform medical interpretation. Despite the increasing reliance on personnel with self-reported bilingual fluency to deliver critical health information to vulnerable patient populations, there is no rigorous and scalable method for assessing bilingual communicative competence in healthcare. This deficit not only renders improvements upon language services difficult, but also deprives qualified bilingual personnel the due recognition and career-advancing credentials they deserve for their skills. This Topical Assessment of Language Knowledge (TALK) initiative aims to deliver a comprehensive support ecosystem for the bilingual healthcare workforce, consisting of a medical bilingual proficiency exam, a scorer workflow management portal, and a searchable directory of credentialed bilingual healthcare personnel. Further, based on proficiency exam results, TALK will offer recommendations for additional language training matched to a test-taker's areas of weakness, creating a mechanism for continued improvement of their valuable skillset. This systematic approach will provide the necessary support for fostering standardization, increased transparency, and quality assurance in instances of bilingual medical communication. The effectiveness of this approach will be evaluated through implementation with administrators, healthcare workers, assessment test scorers, and other pertinent stakeholders.