Much has been made of how a lack of English proficiency can interfere with a patients ability to interact with their doctor and get the best health care possibleBut language barriers can prevent cancer patients from even getting in the door for a first visit with a specialist, a new study reports.
English speakers calling a general information line at U.S. hospitals succeeded nearly 94% of the time in either getting the number for a cancer clinic or being directly transferred to the clinic, results show.
This inability to proceed from even the most basic contact with a hospital can have a profound effect on millions of Americans, Chen said.
More than 60 million people speak a language other than English at home, and more than 25 million have limited proficiency in English, according to 2010 Census stats cited by Chen. That’s a sizable chunk of the overall U.S. population, which now stands at more than 330 million.
