Bilingual doctors and medical staff wanted in Berks

Hospitals and private practices say they often struggle to communicate with growing numbers of Latino patients.

July 10, 2005
By Megan Watzin

Dr. C. Eve J. Kimball wants to hire a bilingual physician for her Reading pediatrics practice, but she has been unable to add one since she started regularly seeing Spanish-speaking patients about 15 years ago.

And though her office gets by using a receptionist, nurse's aide or telephone service to translate, Kimball thinks a bilingual physician would make a difference as the city's Latino population continues to grow.

But some private practices in Reading have difficulty attracting doctors and registered nurses who speak Spanish because hospitals and practices in larger cities can offer higher pay to the few with the right skills, according to Kimball and other local health professionals.

Officials at Reading Hospital and St. Joseph Medical Center said they are satisfied with their ability to recruit bilingual medical professionals and serve the Spanish-speaking community, especially because each hospital has a professional translating team.

However, according to spokesmen at both hospitals, they still could use more bilingual doctors and nurses.

A doctor or nurse fluent in English and Spanish or any other language in addition to English can demand a much higher salary, said Kimball, who does not speak fluent Spanish.

“That makes it difficult for us that are hiring,” she said. “The really good ones get snatched up by everyone who can pay more.”

The need is greatest for Spanish-speaking medical professionals.

National studies have shown that inadequate communication between doctors and nurses and Latinos who speak little English can diminish care for those patients.

Latinos are significantly less likely than non-Latino adults to receive cancer or blood-cholesterol screenings or recommended immunizations, partly because of language and cultural barriers, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nationally, almost three in 10 Latinos have had a problem communicating with health-care providers, according to a study by the California-based Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Because Latinos have difficulty finding proper health-care services in Reading, people from the Daniel Torres Hispanic Center often are called to intervene, said Laura M. Welliver, the center's director of research and program development.

“If you're going to do business in this city, if you're going to service this community, a lot of agencies need to build their capacity to serve the Latino community,” Welliver said. “I think it's a good business opportunity in a community like this. It's worth the investment. People flock to providers who reach out to the community.”

Without enough bilingual doctors and nurses to go around, patients and physicians find themselves coping in other ways.

Patients can bring in a friend or family member to translate, and medical facilities can employ receptionists or nursing aides who speak Spanish.

Also used are anonymous telephone-based translation services, which can be expensive at more than $2 per minute for Spanish.

But there are problems with translation: Patients may not want a translator to know their medical problems, and translations sometimes are inaccurate.

Kimball said she has dealt with so many translations that, though she speaks no more than a few words of Spanish, she can often tell when something is incorrectly translated.

The Berks County Medical Society has found the need for Spanish among physicians so great that it plans to offer a basic Spanish class for doctors in the fall.

“The idea was just for the physicians to be able to converse on a social level with their patients and their families to show that we do have an interest in learning their language and culture,” said Dr. Patti Brown, former president of the medical society and chairwoman of the committee setting up the classes.

Translation is only part of the problem. To translate medical matters adequately, one needs a cultural fluency something Brown said the class also will address.

Cultural understanding is extremely important, said Dr. Soraya Jimenez, a bilingual neurologist in Reading from the Dominican Republic.

She said she came to Reading because of the need for Spanish-speaking medical professionals with an understanding of the Latin culture.

“The implication of symptoms for one culture may be completely different from another,” she said.

Although local doctors are able to provide basic care, quality is diminished, said Dr. Ivan Torres, a bilingual psychologist.

Torres, who is trying to recruit more bilingual therapists and a psychiatrist to his Reading practice, said something is lost when Spanish-speaking patients get evaluations through a translator.

“There are many Hispanic and migrant folk who have really challenged the system to come up with qualified individuals,” Torres said, “and until we do that, we have the issue of sacrificing service.”

Source: Reading Eagle