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

Project Summary Despite a growing need for language access in healthcare settings, the absence of effective patient-provider communication negatively impacts patient outcomes. This project will develop and pilot a technology-enabled platform, as a comprehensive tool that will allow providers to get information about available language services for a particular patient, and implement these services into care plans through a point-of-care tool 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 at inpatient hospital systems following a multi-step implementation plan. We will then evaluate the effect of the product on the metrics of overarching areas of impact: administration, patient experience and satisfaction, and clinical operations. Particular attention will be paid to the user adoption process in order to ready the system for commercial rollout.