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How & Why Language Access Is Clinical Infrastructure · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  Hi, everyone. This is Lucas Voss with Becker's
• 0:02
  Healthcare. Thanks so much for tuning in to
• 0:04
  the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. It's great to
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  have you. Today, we're talking about how and
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  why language access is clinical
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  infrastructure. And joining me for today's discussion, so
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  great to have her, is Maureen Huber. She's
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  the CEO of Marty, an equity solution. Maureen,
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  thanks so much for being here today. It's
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  great to have you. Yeah. Thanks for having
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  me. I really appreciate it. Yeah. Absolutely. I
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  do wanna start off with introductions for those
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  that might not know you yet. If you
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  could just give us a a little bit
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  of an intro to yourself and your background
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  in health care. Sure. So I've spent about
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  the last eleven years in health care with
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  health equity initiatives,
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  mostly focused in providing language access to the
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  limited English proficient and the deaf and hard
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  of hearing communities.
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  And before that, I was an executive, a
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  a failed computer programmer, so a nerd at
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  heart that has found a purpose.
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  Those are my favorite people, Maureen. It's so
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  great to have you.
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  As I mentioned in the title, we're talking
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  about language access. And, certainly, there's there's a
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  lot of things that have changed in our
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  environment in and of itself, be it legislation,
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  be it more conversations.
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  Right? And and there's certainly an element of
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  this where we feel like the conversations around
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  language access
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  have changed
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  in recent years.
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  Is that the case,
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  and what are you seeing within that conversation
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  in and of itself?
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  No. I think some of the financial stress
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  with those regulatory and reimbursement changes you alluded
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  to have really increased the sensitivity of overall
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  performance.
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  So when you think of the patient populations
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  you're servicing, the national average of the limited
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  English proficient
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  is approximately eight percent. But some areas in
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  urban centers or larger states, that could be
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  as high as twenty percent. So leaders must
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  fully examine their performance drivers for that patient
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  population that is traditionally and unfortunately
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  underserved.
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  And overlooked
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  as well, which is so critical for health
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  systems when they're looking at their own environment.
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  And you've alluded to the the legislation piece
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  of this and the conversations around it. And
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  with legislation, again, also comes compliance requirements
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  and certain compliance requirements
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  that health systems have to follow.
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  There's always been an element
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  regarding language access, be it interpretation
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  vendors, having interpretation services, etcetera, meeting those requirements.
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  What's driving the shift right now from language
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  access as just like, okay. Check.
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  Compliance requirement done,
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  to language access that's actually regarded as a
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  clinical infrastructure and a driver? And why is
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  that happening right now?
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  I think there's a few areas. You know,
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  immigration
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  policy and enforcement
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  has put a spotlight on this particular patient
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  population.
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  So making sure hospitals are providing safe, secure
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  opportunities to provide care and communicative
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  autonomy,
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  and being able to do that has gotten
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  a lot easier. I I hate to say
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  post COVID because we're still seeing new strains
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  of COVID popping up in our
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  in our country, but really the points of
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  care across the care continuum
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  have changed with smart ecosystems,
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  the proliferation of technology. It really allows language
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  access to be ubiquitous and part of that
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  infrastructure.
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  Are you just as a quick follow-up here,
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  are you having more conversations
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  with leaders around this in your position and
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  certainly the folks that you meet?
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  Yes. So when we when we work with
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  our clients, we really think of them as
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  partners, and we help them understand
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  their ecosystem and their points of care. And
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  by ecosystem,
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  it's anywhere where you have, you know, a
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  microphone, a camera, a screen
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  to bring that remote video interpreter into a
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  care setting
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  or in cases where you just have the
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  audio capability
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  and where you can integrate it. So working
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  with other technology
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  partners that are
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  popping up in these care environments, making it
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  easy to use for the clinicians is really
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  important. So being integrated into the workflows
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  of that clinical infrastructure such as an EMR,
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  being able to easily launch it really makes
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  a difference.
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  And you mentioned the the clinician there, which
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  is so crucial. Again, understanding somebody
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  is so, so, so important in a medical
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  environment because, again, the doctors, the providers, whoever
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  it may be, they want to help, and
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  they can only help if there's a certain
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  level of understanding and language is such a
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  big part of that.
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  When you're thinking about the clinical risk
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  when language access is just treated as sort
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  of an operational afterthought, again, that checkbox that
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  we just touched on.
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  Right? Why
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  is that so significant?
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  Why should that not be treated that way?
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  And, again, our health system leaders, the conversations
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  that you're having, fully appreciate that exposure.
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  One of our clients, a surgeon actually, was
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  seeking informed consent, one of the first times
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  he had used remote video interpretation,
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  and really understanding that 92%
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  of communication is nonverbal.
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  So being able to have that interpreter there,
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  patient side, at a critical point,
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  it was almost spiritual form, his words,
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  and really having that informed consent from the
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  patient about what the potential catastrophic outcome could
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  be and getting comfort.
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  And so I think it's really important from
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  a clinician's perspective in getting their feedback, and
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  we work very closely with them
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  about when and where types of modalities are
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  deployed for what types of care settings.
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  And so really thinking about it from an
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  outcomes perspective
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  versus a compliance check the box.
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  Now let's turn this around then. When
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  folks are just checking the box, they have
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  done this, they've checked the box, okay, It's
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  great. I don't need this. We're done. We
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  have the compliance.
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  Right?
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  They're meeting the requirements. What do you say
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  to those leaders
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  who do exactly what we just described, and
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  they don't really see a problem? Right? What
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  what do you say to them? Yeah. I
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  you know, I believe in it comes from
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  a good place.
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  When they're
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  dealing with competing priorities and financial constraints,
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  they believe that checking the box is okay.
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  We help them navigate to the research. We
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  help them understand the data.
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  That's something that's been fairly,
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  new in the past several years is really
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  some of the research and studies that have
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  come out and working with our partners to
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  help sponsor and publish those
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  research in the data outcomes
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  is it really can be a meaningful strategic
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  performance driver,
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  reducing length of stay, reducing readmissions,
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  improving clinical productivity.
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  And so when they have that partnership,
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  you know, they're they've got more than just
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  a vendor and checking the box.
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  They are really understanding
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  the overall impact
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  and the total return on that investment
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  of having language access become available as an
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  infrastructure.
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  Yeah.
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  Maureen,
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  such an important conversation. It's so fantastic to
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  have you on. We've touched on so many
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  different things in our conversation here today.
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  If there's one thing that you'd want our
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  audience to leave with from what we've talked
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  about or anything else, Right? What what would
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  that be for you?
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  You know, one of my colleagues shared a
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  quote with me this morning. We we're a
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  very purpose driven
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  culture here, and and it was really inspiring.
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  It's from Burials. And and it's when you
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  have to speak another language,
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  you say what you can.
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  When you speak your own, you say what
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  you truly mean.
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  So I think it's the trying to provide
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  that communicative
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  autonomy
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  and giving the patients
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  empowerment of their own care to truly participate
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  in their care,
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  that's what drives meaningful outcomes. That's what makes
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  a performance
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  strategic initiative.
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  Maureen, so great to have you. Thanks so
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  much for being here today. Thanks for having
• 8:11
  me. Appreciate it.
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  And we also want to thank our podcast
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  sponsor, Marty and Equity Solution. You can tune
• 8:16
  in to more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by
• 8:18
  visiting our podcast page at beckershospitalreview.com.