Linda Coburn By Contributing Reporter “Providing Culturally Competent Health Care” is the title of a half-day employee training program that Glendale Memorial Hospital has implemented as just one component of its mission to better serve its culturally diverse patient population of about 1.2 million people. In the 18 months since its inception, more than 80 percent of the nursing staff has already completed the training session. “We’ve had a very positive response,” said Deborah Wilson, vice president of human resources and organizational development. “Without nursing’s cooperation it would just be another program but they are mandating people go and then are doing testing and follow-up with participants,” she said. “We would love to put physicians through the program,” said Wilson, but getting them to commit to the time is a challenge. “Doctors aren’t employees,” she added. The hospital has devoted an uncommon amount of time and resources to the training, said Wilson. “We’re now expanding it to a full day,” she said. According to Vicki Mertes, organizational development specialist for the hospital, “Anybody who delivers care directly to patients at bedside is required to attend.” But some departments with staff that are not in that position have seen the value of the program and are sending their employees as well. “In addition to the nursing staff, staff in the pharmacy and laboratory as well as some therapists and administrative staff have also gone through the training,” said Mertes. Communicating with patients and their families is another big priority. Besides English, the top three languages spoken by patients and their families are Spanish, Armenian and Korean. Glendale Memorial uses a mix of paid and volunteer interpreters including hospital staff and volunteers who have passed a medical terminology competency exam. They also subscribe to the “Cyracom Interpreter Phone” service. This is a special phone that links hospital staff with a service that has interpreters for a wide variety of languages. If someone speaks an uncommon language, like Swahili, for example, a patient care provider would use the special phone to reach an interpreter. Once the interpreter is on the line, the provider can speak into the phone, say, ‘tell the patient so-and-so’ and then hand the phone to the patient and someone gives the patient the information they need in their own language. “It’s pretty immediate,” said Wilson. “You have to go find the phone but once you dial up it doesn’t take long to get an appropriate interpreter on the phone. Many hospitals use this service.” As far as whether the staff reflects the diversity of the patient population, Wilson thinks Glendale has done a fair job. “We don’t have a lot of nurses who are Latino and that is because nationwide there are not a lot. We are increasing in the Armenian nursing staff. There’s a national nursing shortage so we can’t be as selective as we would like,” she said. Glendale does have a large number of Armenian physicians, and a fair number of Latino and Korean physicians as well. Recently the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations added “culturally sensitive healthcare” to its scorecard. “For the first time, accredited hospitals are being surveyed against the standard,” said Wilson, “But how hospitals choose to do that is up to them.”
