Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #103930

Rosa-Elena Garcia, MPH, Leo S. Morales, MD, PhD, Diane Schoeff, MA, and Chantal Avila, MA. Survey Research Group, RAND Health, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407, 310-393-0411, rosaeg@rand.org

Data consistently show that linguistic, racial and ethnic minorities experience higher rates of morbidity and mortality from chronic disease. Because accurate communication is a vital component in the delivery and receipt of effective health care, the availability of culturally and linguistically competent care is increasingly recognized as a prerequisite to quality health care and the reduction of health disparities. The use of language and interpretation services is seen as a way of improving access to care, the quality of that care and patient health outcomes. Hablamos Juntos: Improving Patient-Provider Communication for Latinos is a demonstration project funded by the RWJF at 10 sites. Its principal objective is to improve access to quality health care and outcomes for Latinos with limited English proficiency through the provision of language and interpretation services. RAND is conducting patient surveys, organizational site visits, and focus groups as part of the evaluation in order to develop in-depth descriptions of each site's intervention, assess their impact on patient-centered outcomes of care for Latinos; and estimate the cost of the interventions. In this poster we describe the impact of the IRB & HIPAA process and the varied organizational factors at the sites on various evaluation outcomes (Latino patient identification, patient recruitment, final cooperation rate of Latino patients, schedule, and costs). We highlight strategies implemented to identify Latino patients at these sites and gain their cooperation, and make recommendations for agencies doing multi-site evaluations with limited English speaking Latinos.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to

• Describe the impact of privacy-related and consent requirements on study outcomes (recruitment, cooperation rates, schedules, costs);
• Describe issues involved with identification of Latino patients within health care systems and impact it had on the participating sites and the evaluation team and approach used by RAND to identify Latino patients using the sites’ record management systems; 3)Describe various organization based factors (staffing, record management systems (RMS), experience with research, etc) that impact study outcomes and
• Articulate strategies to avoid or minimize problems commonly associated with IRB requirements & HIPPA privacy-related issues, identification of Latino patients using RMS systems, and varied consent procedures when conducting multi-site studies focusing on Latino patients.

Keywords: Latino Health, Evaluation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.