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

Abstract #110000

Dorcas Grigg-Saito, MS¹, Sheila Och², Evelyne Delori, FNP¹, and Sonith Peou³. (1) Lowell Community Health Center, 585 Merrimack Street, Lowell, MA 01854, 978-746-7851, dorcasgr@lchealth.org, (2) Cambodian Community Health 2010 Program, Lowell Community Health Center, 15-17 Warren Street, 3rd FLoor, Lowell, MA 01852, (3) Metta Health Center, Lowell Community Health Center, 135 Jackson Street, Lowell, MA 01852

Lowell Community Health Center serves 20,000 people a year, 65% of whom do not speak English as their primary language. A model is presented for promoting cultural competence in a community health center through a Southeast Asian specific site followed by application of that model to other health center sites and populations, including Latinos from Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Colombia; African immigrants from 12 countries; and Brazilians. The model addresses all aspects of services; facilities and the care environment, e.g., signage and artwork; staffing using targeted recruitment and training; board and senior management leadership; patient/community input in service design through community conversations and patient advisory groups; partnering with other ethnic community based organizations; and community outreach. The Language Access System Improvement Team performance improvement project is described, including competency development and financial incentives for medical interpreters. Outcomes reported include an increase in bilingual, bicultural staff to 50%; a 25% to 50% increase in Latino, Southeast Asian, African, and Brazilian patients; increase in patient and provider satisfaction; and improvements in employee cultural competence understanding and interpreter capabilities. Recommendations are made for application to other health care settings and funding for the work. Learning objectives follow: 1) Identify strategies for increasing understanding in communities about means of accessing the health care system, 2) Describe ways of creating a culturally competent environment, services, and work force, 3) Define steps to providing linguistic access to services, and 4) Articulate methods of increasing input from patients and communities regarding service improvement strategies.

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