LanguageMate Resources
Technology such as the tools in LanguageMate’s portfolio offers patients and providers improvements in the delivery, quality and access to healthcare. These benefits are especially apparent in the care of vulnerable populations, such as those with Limited English Proficiency or low Functional Health Literacy (FHL), the elderly, and rural communities.
Please look below for information on additional health IT resources that support this important initiative.
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Informatics For Consumer Health (ICH)
The ICH focuses on a coordination of health information, technology, and health care delivery that empowers providers to manage care and increases the ability of consumers to gain mastery over their own health. This can be accomplished by promoting the use of information technology and communication between health care providers and their patients to share vital medical information across clinical settings in timely and reliable ways and utilizing electronic tools to achieve these objectives.
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Limited English Proficient (LEP) Patients
PATIENTS Limited English Proficient individuals are those who do not speak English as their primary language and who have a limited ability to read, speak, write or understand English. LEP individuals may be entitled language assistance with respect to a particular type or service, benefit, or encounter (2). They are more likely than others to defer essential medical care, leave a clinic without adequate discharge instructions, and miss follow-up appointments. They are also less likely to maintain continuity of care by remaining with their current providers or to settle debts incurred by their treatment.
(2)SOURCE: "LEP Frequently Asked Questions." LEP Main Page. Web. 27 July 2010.
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Consumer Health Informatics And Health Outcomes
Health information technology (health IT) and eHealth solutions that are individually tailored to patients have great potential to improve health. The field of consumer health informatics (CHI) has produced exciting new tools, technologies, and electronic applications that provide patients with individualized assistance and are designed to interact directly with patients with OR without the presence of a healthcare provider. Studies have demonstrated that tools such as the ones in the LanguageMate product suite help patients better manage their health.
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Shared Learning About Patient-Provider Communication
Communication barriers and breakdowns are the root cause of more sentinel events, medical errors, unnecessary costs, and inadequate treatments than any other single cause (1). The Patient Provider Communication (PPC) forum offers a range of perspectives and experience in the area of patient-provider communication. The group works to share knowledge and resources and to raise awareness at both the practice and policy levels of the need to overcome existing communication barriers and to increase communication access across healthcare settings.
(1) SOURCE Improving America’s Hospitals- The Joint Commissions’ Annual Report n Quality and Safety, Joint Commission, 2007. Web 29 September 2010 – http://www.jointcommission.org/Library/annual_report.htm
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In The News
Communication among providers and coordination of care that occurs as a patient moves among different care settings, such as primary care, medical imaging, and specialty care, has been shown to reduce medical errors and their associated costs and prevent unnecessary and duplication of services.
