In an effort to improve the delivery of healthcare services to limited-English proficient (LEP) Californians, the San Bernardino County Medical Society renewed its participation in a collaborative of 28 physician and medical organizations from across the state. The group is called the Medical Leadership Council on Cultural Proficiency.

Led by The California Endowment and convened by the California Academy of Family Physicians, the council seeks solutions to improve the provision of interpreter and translation services to LEP patients as well as strategies to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities. TCE provided an $809,000 grant to continue funding the council.

TCE is leveraging the expertise of healthcare leaders--in medical societies, advocacy organizations, health plans and health systems--to solve a critical element of the nation's healthcare crisis.

Past work of the council includes a language access toolkit developed by CAFP. That kit, "Addressing Language Access Issues in Your Practice," has been the basis of CME courses for 600 physicians across California. In May 2005, SBCMS held a seminar to raise member awareness about the complexity and importance of language access. SBCMS will hold a second language-access seminar in early 2006. Look for your invitation.

The council will use the expertise of participants to work on systems issues, such as determining who is LEP, assessing staff language competence and researching payment options for telephone interpreters, and patient-physician communication issues, such as paying more attention to the patient than the interpreter, taking more time between sentences and using "teach back" techniques. The goal is the development of practical tools to assist member organizations in reducing health disparities.

Improving healthcare workforce diversity is another important strategy to accomplish this goal. TCE outlines ways to achieve enhanced diversity. They include:

1. Increasing incentives for healthcare professionals to serve in underserved areas;

2. Developing education and career ladders for healthcare professionals in underserved areas;

3. Recruiting more minority faculty in medical, nursing and dentistry schools;

4. Increasing academic and social support for minority students in professional schools;

5. Increasing financial aid;

6. Creating effective high school pipelines to encourage minority students to enter health professions; and
 
7. Better integrating internationally trained physicians.

According to the Census 2000 Supplemental Survey, 40 percent of Californians speak a language other than English at home. Half of these individuals (7 million) are LEP and would benefit from language assistance--either interpretation (spoken) or translation (written)--when accessing healthcare services.

The council will meet biannually to discuss strategies to improve the quality of care received by LEP patients, explore policy changes to better fund healthcare interpreter services, examine means to end racial and ethnic health disparities, and consider ways to ensure the healthcare workforce represents California's diversity.