Area doctors able to bridge language gap

The foreign languages spoken by Columbus-area doctors align well with the needs of their patients, making the area unique among the nation’s 50 biggest metropolitan areas, according to a recent report.

The report from Doximity, a national physicians’ network, shows that the top non-English languages spoken by physicians in central Ohio are Spanish, Hindi and Persian, and the top nonEnglish languages spoken by patients are Spanish, Hindi and Chinese.

Overall results are positive, but the report also shows that Columbus-area patients who speak Japanese are the most likely to have difficulty finding a doctor who speaks the same language. Patients in Columbus also were more likely to speak Korean and Russian than were physicians.

The study reviewed profiles of more than 60,000 U.S. physicians who speak languages other than English and compared them with Census data.

Nationwide, there was a significant language gap, with the least overlap in Swahili/sub-Saharan African; Hamitic/Near-East Arabic; Polynesian; Burmese/Southeast Asian; Filipino; Korean; Indonesian; Vietnamese; Thai; and Japanese.

“This is an important issue because 25 million people in the United States have limited English proficiency, so when it comes to going to the doctor and conveying what issues you’re experiencing, it’s very difficult when the patient and the physician can’t speak in the same language,” said Joel Davis, Doximity’s vice president of analytics.

The study also found that about 45 percent of physicians who speak a non-English language graduated from a medical school outside the United States.

Among the 50 metropolitan areas evaluated, only two — Columbus and Milwaukee — had strong matches between the languages spoken by physicians and patients.

Davis said it is difficult to speculate why Columbus fared so well, but said that perhaps the immigrant groups that have come into the area have carried doctors with them.

The finding that Japanese patients face challenges here rings true to Risako Tanaka, translator and administrative/event coordinator for the Japan-America Society of Central Ohio. She said there is a shortage of good Japanese Dr. Kaoru Miyazaki examines 7-year-old Haruma Tanaka during a physical at the Kuraoka Clinic of Ohio, which specializes in doctors who speak Japanese. Haruma’s mother, Risako Tanaka, looks on. She works as a Japanese translator for the Japan-America Society of Central Ohio.

medical interpreters. Her family uses the Kuraoka Clinic of Ohio, which was established four years ago to provide Japanese-speaking physicians.

Dr. Kaoru Miyazaki, the practice’s only full-time doctor, said the group is able to meet the local demand and also draws patients from Cincinnati, Cleveland and Charleston, West Virginia.

His patients are largely Japanese residents living in the United States temporarily to take positions at car manufacturers or suppliers, primarily the Honda plant in Marysville. He said some of the companies supply interpreters that employees can use for doctors’ appointments, but they might not be as available as patients would like.

Local medical systems and doctors’ offices have a number of ways to foster communication between physicians and patients who don’t speak English. Many have medical interpreters on staff or contract with outside agencies. More and more, interpreters are available via phone or through audiovisual systems that provide

access to hundreds of languages and dialects.

At Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, about 90,000 requests for interpreters in 126 languages were filled last year.

“Certainly, the diversity of our patient population is growing,” said Milly Valverde, director of Wexner’s Destination Medicine program.

Along with working to improve interpreter services, efforts are being made to increase the diversity of the physician workforce to make it more closely match the diversity of the people in central Ohio, said Dr. Doug Knutson, OhioHealth system vice president of academic affairs.

Having a doctor who speaks the same language can foster better communication because translators who might lack the medical knowledge needed to relay information without misinterpretation, Miyazaki said.

On the flip side, there could be times when a translator would be a better option, Valverde said, especially if the physician is not fluent in the needed language. She

said medical systems should assess doctors speaking second languages and assure that they go through medical-interpreter training.

The growth of audio-visual systems that remotely link interpreters with patients also presents some challenges, said Nadia Kasvin, co-founder and director of US Together, which serves immigrants and refugees in Ohio. The technology can present an additional barrier for people who come from refugee camps or who have vision or hearing problems.

The key is to continue to provide various ways to meet needs, Kasvin said.

“We’re really grateful that we have better interpreter services than we had 15 years ago,” she said.

The services also have become more professional over the years, with a stronger focus on ethics, privacy and making sure interpreters don’t omit any information shared between a patient and a doctor, Valverde said.

“Twenty, 25, years ago, it was just knowing another language and that was it,” she said. 1. Spanish

2. Hindi

3. Persian

4. Arabic

5. French

6. Italian

7. Chinese

8. German

9. Portuguese

10. Hebrew

Top 10 non-English languages spoken by patients in the Columbus metropolitan area

1. Spanish

2. Hindi

3. Chinese

4. French

5. Arabic

6. German

7. Korean

8. Russian

9. Japanese

10. Italian

Providing such services is required for certain accreditations and Medicare or Medicaid reimbursements, advocates say. Though requirements are generally met by larger health-care systems, small private practices might struggle, limiting options for patients.

Costs are absorbed by the provider.

Helping physicians communicate with patients who have limited English proficiency involves addressing much more than just language, Knutson said.

Training programs for OhioHealth residents, fellows and physician leaders, for example, address cultural issues.

“We have people who are very effective at communicating through any means because their communication skills are great,” he said. “You don’t have to speak the same language to take care of a patient effectively.”