Posts Tagged ‘cultural competence’

Review: Work Safe: An Employer’s Guide to Safety and Health in a Diversified Workforce

Monday, November 18th, 2013

Review of work produced by Peter Rousmaniere, with support from Concentra and Broadspire.
Of the 15 occupations that are expected to see the largest numerical growth between now and 2020, foreign-born workers, immigrants, are currently over-represented in eight of them. And of those eight, six are classified as “low-skilled” for which a high school diploma is not required. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that these occupations will grow by 42% between 2010 and 2020. Odds are that they will continue to be over-represented by foreign-born workers.
Consider this:

  • Forty-nine percent of private household employees are immigrants;
    • Within the Construction industry, 65% of all “reinforcing iron and rebar” workers are immigrants, and they total 27% of all construction laborers;
  • Forty percent of maids and housekeepers in the Accommodation industry are immigrants; and,
  • While immigrants comprise 24% of all the workers in the Agricultural industry, they make up 61% of the field workers.

As of 2010, 29% of immigrants between the ages of 25 and 64 lacked a high school degree, as opposed to 7.4% of the U.S.-born population. And, although immigrants make up 15.8% of all U.S. workers (something a bit hard to believe when you consider their ridiculous over-representation in those fast growing industries), they account for 20% of all reported injuries.
These facts, alone, make Peter Rousmaniere’s Work Safe: An Employer’s Guide to Safety and Health in a Diversified Workforce (PDF), published with support from Concentra and Broadspire, a timely and compelling read. Moreover, it’s free and is available as a pdf download at Broadspire.
Rousmaniere, publisher of the Working Immigrants blog since January 2006, and, until November 2013, a columnist for Risk and Insurance Magazine, has, until now, been a “voice crying in the wilderness.” He’s been banging the drum and sounding the alarm, saying that we, as a nation, and particularly as employers, are unprepared–indeed, are refusing to prepare–to deal with the needs and cultural differences presented by immigrant workers. A Harvard MBA, Rousmaniere believes that, although there is a moral imperative for doing so, making the effort to become sensitive to the language and cultural differences in our immigrant workforce just makes good business sense. And in this 57-page, 6×9 inch, handsomely produced Employer’s Guide he skillfully makes the point.
Although immigrants are also over-represented in high-skilled jobs, this book is really aimed at the vast underbelly, immigrant workers who lack the education and skill set to navigate through the thorny thicket of work rules and health care issues, immigrants who may speak wonderful Spanish, or any number of other languages, but nary a word of English. The theme running through the entire book is one that urges us not to assume that English-challenged immigrant workers understand what we say, even when we say it in their language. Rousmaniere makes this point over and over again, so much so that I thought the book could have been somewhat shorter without losing a thing.
To me, this sentence is the big pitch:

“…moderately or low-skilled immigrants working in jobs of average or above-average injury risk are likely to face greater safety issues even if they work alongside U.S.-born workers.”

The book has an excellent chapter on safety training in which Rousmaniere doesn’t so much suggest what to say, but rather how to say it. He writes about teaching through stories, role-playing, body mapping and pictures. He’s big on pictures, recommending that employers go so far as to hire cartoonists, because cartoonists have “a knack for telling a story in one or many panels.” He even describes how cartoonists get paid and offers “Tips for working with artists.”
In the Workers’ Compensation chapter, Rousmaniere offers a novel idea — the prepaid indemnity card. He points out that about a third of the people who earn less than $30,000 a year don’t have bank accounts and, consequently pay hundreds of dollars a year in check cashing charges. To help them, he suggests that claims payers contract with debit card vendors to pay indemnity benefits directly to injured workers via the card, which the vendor would arrange to have honored at ATMs. Interestingly, this isn’t a new concept. Rousmaniere says, “An increasing number of employees receive their wages via a payroll debit card.” Left unsaid is what that “increasing number” actually is, but if you think about it, his idea might have more than a little merit because of the inexorable gravitational movement of technology.
The book has an extensive chapter on “Medical Care Across Cultures,” and here Rousmaniere is writing about all medical care, not just work injury care. Again, it’s all about translation and culture. He gives an illustration: “In some societies, it’s believed that coughs are always fatal.” I found myself wishing he’d enlighten us as to which ones.
He writes about “Job-Specific Challenges in Cross-Cultural Care” and says that “Medical Case Managers are likely to have to confront a patient’s steep learning curve when it comes to understanding the American health care system.” I found that one a bit rich, as in – does any patient understand the American health care system, if you can call it that.
In fact, I found that much of the chapter on health care really applied, not only to immigrants, but also to many native-born Americans who are unskilled at navigating the health care maze and have what Rousmaniere calls “low health literacy.” For example, he offers a bullet list of “side effects” for this affliction: failure to seek preventive care, leading to more ER visits and hospital admissions; no written agenda for medical visits; missed appointments; lack of follow-through with imaging tests; misuse of medications; and so on.
Rousmaniere suggests an “Rx for Hospitals: Professional Interpreters.” Moreover, he points out, “The Civil Rights Act obligates medical providers to arrange for patient communication in the most suitable language for the patient.” I did not know that. He offers health care providers another bullet list of tips for overcoming language differences. In today’s health care world the first tip, “Slow down. Plan double the normal time,” might be hard to achieve. Trouble is, the tips all make good sense. They’re thoughtfully done, and, were it not for our health care assembly line process, they’d be the norm. My bottom line takeaway to Rousmaniere’s health care recommendations: they will take nearly dictatorial leadership to implement.
Then for good measure, in case we’ve missed the point, Rousmaniere throws in an entire chapter on translation and interpreting, entitled “Translate This!” But just when you know to the soles of your boots that this translation thing has gone way too far, he throws in this Case Study zinger that makes you think he might be right to concentrate so much on this:

“An English-speaking hospital staff once misinterpreted a patient’s complaint of “intoxicado” as an admission of being intoxicated, not that the patient felt nauseous. The mistake resulted in permanent paralysis and a multi-million dollar financial settlement.”

The translation and interpreting chapter lists a number of resources of which health care and insurance pros will likely be unaware. He compliments California for Senate Bill 853, which “requires that health insurance organizations provide free and timely translation and interpretation services for patients with limited English proficiency.” And Rousmaniere’s “10 Planning Steps for Translation and Interpreting” is spot on.
But for my money, the little jewel in this book is the last chapter – “Free Online Resources.” I loved it. He has hunted down a wonderful library of resources that every professional in the field should have at his or her fingertips. They come as General Resources, such as a number of truly excellent offerings from the State Compensation Fund of California, Spanish to English and English to Spanish dictionaries published by OSHA, and resources aimed at a number of industries, the ones with all those low-skilled, fairly uneducated immigrants. Excellent, indeed!
All this may be a bit much for middle and small market employers, who may not think they have the resources or time to invest in this level of acculturation. I suspect that this book may not be a big seller for them. Health care professionals, on the other hand, would be well-advised to study it closely.
But, here’s an idea: if insurance companies and insurance agencies were to distribute the book to their customers, that would go a long way toward educating employers and getting Peter Rousmaniere out of the “wilderness.” For, in the immortal words of that great American philosopher and discount retailer, Sy Syms, “An educated consumer is our best customer.”
The official launch of the Guide will take place at the National Workers’ Compensation Conference in Las Vegas, NV, November 20-22.

Health literacy: employees at risk

Wednesday, February 28th, 2007

Last week, Ezra Klein put the issue of health literacy back on our radar screen with a link to a recent Washington Post article, A Silent Epidemic. The article discusses the complexity of the health care system, and how a huge swath of the population is unprepared to effectively engage that system because of functional illiteracy, language, or culture. The article cites a 1999 report by the American Medical Association finding that most medical forms are written at a graduate school level while the average U.S. adult has eighth-grade level literacy skills. Another study cited painted a bleaker picture:

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1995 found that more than 80 percent of patients treated at two of the nation’s largest public hospitals could not understand instructions written at the fourth-grade level for the preparation of gastrointestinal X-rays known as an upper GI series. A 1999 study of more than 3,200 Medicare recipients found that one in three native-born patients could not answer a question about normal blood sugar readings even after being given a paper to read that listed the correct answer. And a study of 2,500 elderly patients published last year in the Journal of General Internal Medicine reported that patients with low health literacy were twice as likely to die during a five-year period as those with adequate skills, regardless of age, race or income.

The Joint Commission recently issued a report 65-page report on this issue entitled “What Did the Doctor Say?”: Improving Health Literacy to Protect Patient Safety (PDF), but if you’d like a quick executive summary, see recent press release on Low Health Literacy Puts Patients at Risk, which offers a summary of the issue along with some specific recommendations for healthcare providers to address the problem. These include:

  • The sensitization, education and training of clinicians and health care organization leaders and staff regarding health literacy issues and patient-centered communications.
  • The development of patient-friendly navigational aids in health care facilities.
  • The enhanced training and use of interpreters for patients.
  • The re-design of informed consent forms and the informed consent process.
  • The development of insurance enrollment forms and benefits explanations that are “client-centered.”
  • The use of established patient communication methods such as “teach back.”
  • The expanded adaptation and use of adult learning centers to meet patient health literacy needs.
  • The development of patient self-management skills.
  • Health care organization assessment of the literacy levels and language needs of the communities they serve.
  • The design of public health interventions that are audience-centered and can be communicated in the context of the lives of the target population.
  • The integration of the patient communication priority into emerging physician pay-for-performance programs.
  • The provision of medical liability insurance discounts for physicians who apply patient-centered communication techniques.

Workers compensation implications
This issue has great relevance to employers for the implications that health literacy can have on workers compensation, general disability, and general work force wellness. Good outcomes require good communication. If you want to ensure that your workers get good medical care and return to health and to work as soon as possible, effective communication between the injured worker and the treating physician is essential. And it would appear that if the average reading comprehension is at eighth grade level, few employers are immune. The challenges for employers with a high population of unskilled workers or workers who have or no English are even greater.
First and foremost, employers and managers should understand the risks inherent in their work force. Illiteracy is also an issue that with enormous implications for safety and training. Organizations with a work population that is at high risk from a health literacy perspective should also take particular care to select physicians who have cultural competence. And when a work injury occurs, there may be a need for a health care liaison to help and advocate for the injured worker. For complex cases, this might be a nurse case manager. For simple injuries, employers might assign a workers comp injury coordinator who would follow up with the injured worker frequently during the recovery process, and verify that medical instructions are understood and being followed. A translator might also be part of the care team if the worker has limited English.
Related posts:
When it comes to safety, make sure you speak the same language!
A health literacy crisis looming?
Cultural competence in healthcare and beyond

A health literacy crisis looming?

Friday, April 16th, 2004

A few weeks ago, we featured an article that discussed the need for cultural competence in healthcare – “the ability of providers and organizations to effectively deliver health care services that meet the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of patients.”

More recently, The Health Show pointed us to a recent report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) suggesting that 90 million Americans face significant health literacy issues. The IOM emphasizes taht this is not simply an issue that faces the uneducated or the poor. According to the report:

“Health literacy skills are needed for discussing care with health professionals; reading and understanding patient information sheets, consent forms, and advertising; and using medical tools such as a thermometer. Over 300 studies indicate that health-related materials cannot be understood by most of the people for whom they are intended.

Individuals are increasingly responsible for managing their own health care, the committee noted. They are assuming new roles in seeking information, measuring and monitoring their own health, and making decisions about insurance and options for care. Patients’ health often depends on their ability and willingness to carry out a set of activities needed to manage and treat their disease. This self-management is essential to successful care of chronic diseases such as diabetes, HIV, and hypertension. Patients with chronic illness who have limited health literacy are less knowledgeable about disease management and less likely to use preventive measures.

Limited health literacy is not a problem that starts and ends with patients, the committee added. Health systems are becoming increasingly complex, involving new technologies, scientific jargon, and complicated medical procedures and forms. All of these aspects of the health system can be confusing to patients.”

In the midst of this increasing complexity, throw the $3 billion in annual drug advertising that pharmaceutical companies spend on direct-to-consumer advertising into the mix. While ads previously focused on discretionary types of treatments, pharmaceutical companies are increasingly advertising complex treatments for serious health conditions.

To remedy the health literacy issue, the IOM suggests that practical health education and skills be added to the curricula from kindergarten through high school, as well as in adult education and community programs.

From a workers comp perspective, this makes the case for nurse case managers as health care advocates and educators, particularly in complex cases. However, case managers are often introduced too late in a claim after the treatment trajectory has been set. Also, their role is too often viewed as mere “cost control” when the most effective goal would be to foster recovery and return to work.

Cultural competence in healthcare and beyond

Monday, March 29th, 2004

Is your workers comp provider network culturally competent? If not, you may fostering needless disability. Georgetown University’s Center on an Aging Society has an excellent article on the issue of cultural competence in healthcare, and defines the concept as “the ability of providers and organizations to effectively deliver health care services that meet the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of patients.”

The article addresses the specialized medical needs that the changing demographics demand, both for reasons of language and other cultural and socio-economic factors. It makes the case that positive outcomes require that physicians and other providers develop cultural competence in service delivery. Barring this competence, minorities are more likely to be dissatisfied with care.

If the providers, organizations, and systems are not working together to provide culturally competent care, patients are at higher risk of having negative health consequences, receiving poor quality care, or being dissatisfied with their care. African Americans and other ethnic minorities report less partnership with physicians, less participation in medical decisions, and lower levels of satisfaction with care. The quality of patient-physician interactions is lower among non-White patients, particularly Latinos and Asian Americans. Lower quality patient-physician interactions are associated with lower overall satisfaction with health care.

In workers comp, poor quality care and dissatisfaction hinder recovery and may well prolong disability. Dissatisfaction often also turns into lawsuits that might have been prevented. The issue of cultural competence has relevance to workers compensation in terms of health-care services delivered by workers compensation provider networks, but also in other aspects of prevention and claims management as well. We’ve previously discussed some of the challenges posed by an increasingly multilingual workforce, as well as the fact that some immigrant workers are at high risk of injuries or death.

The article suggests the following strategies for improving the patient-provider interaction and institutionalizing changes in the health care system:
1. Provide interpreter services
2. Recruit and retain minority staff
3. Provide training to increase cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills
4. Coordinate with traditional healers
5. Use community health workers
6. Incorporate culture-specific attitudes and values into health promotion tools
7. Include family and community members in health care decision making
8. Locate clinics in geographic areas that are easily accessible for certain populations
9. Expand hours of operation
10. Provide linguistic competency that extends beyond the clinical encounter to the appointment desk, advice lines, medical billing, and other written materials

This list might be a useful adjunct to an employer’s current gating issues when screening medical providers for a workers comp program. It also provides a checklist of considerations for loss control, risk management, and claims staff as well.