Researchers from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago reported on Apr. 3 that giving families direct access to interpreter technology in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) doubled the amount of time they communicated with medical staff. The findings were published in the journal Hospital Pediatrics.
The study is significant because language barriers can make it harder for families to participate in important medical decisions, especially when their child is critically ill. In many hospitals, only healthcare staff decide when interpretation services are used, which may limit family involvement.
"We were surprised at how much communication with clinicians increased," said one of the researchers. "This is exciting, since we know from previous research that professional interpretation improves outcomes, but it tends to be underused. Our aim was to increase interpreter use and hopefully achieve better partnership with non-English speaking families of children in intensive care."
As part of the intervention, hospital-provided tablets equipped with video interpretation and instructions in each family's primary language were placed in every patient room. Families were encouraged to use these tablets independently whenever they needed an interpreter.
The study included 158 families before the intervention and 271 after its introduction. Analysis of billing data showed that average daily interpreter use per patient rose from seven minutes before the program to sixteen minutes afterward.
Researchers say these results suggest that enabling direct access to interpreters can improve communication between non-English speaking families and healthcare teams during critical times.
