242939 Validation of a Patient-Centered Culturally Sensitive Health Care Office Staff Inventory

Monday, October 31, 2011

Whitney Wall, MPH , Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Carolyn M. Tucker, PhD , Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Khanh Nghiem, MS , Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Julia Roncoroni, BA , Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Tya M. Arthur, PhD, MPH, CPH , Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Chase Knickerbocker , Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Patient-centered cultural sensitivity involves interacting with patients in ways that enable them to feel comfortable, respected, and trusting in the health care process. The majority of available research pertaining to cultural sensitivity and cultural competence focuses exclusively on health care providers. Provider cultural sensitivity has been positively associated with patient satisfaction, treatment adherence, and health outcomes. Yet, today's health care experience encompasses much more than isolated patient-provider interactions. It is the health care clinic office staff who make the first impression on patients regarding the quality (including the cultural sensitivity) of the health care that they will experience at a health care clinic. Given the documented links between patient-centered cultural sensitivity in health care and patients' health care satisfaction, there is clearly a need for research to assess the level of patient-centered cultural sensitivity displayed by health care clinic office staff. Despite this, there is a paucity of research pertaining to health care office staff and no studies investigate the isolated role of office staff cultural sensitivity in patient empowerment, health care satisfaction, treatment adherence, or health outcomes. The absence of such research is likely related to the lack of reliable measures available to assess the cultural sensitivity of office staff. Thus, the present study was conducted to determine the factor structure and reliability of a newly developed inventory called the Tucker Culturally Sensitive Health Care Office Staff Inventory – Patient Form (T-CSHCOSI-PF). This 32-item inventory is designed for patients to use to evaluate the level of patient-centered cultural sensitivity that they perceive as displayed by their clinic office staff. The study sample consisted of a nationally representative sample of 1,648 adult patients. The sample included 1,052 women, 527 men, and 69 with unreported gender, of whom 20% self-identified as African American, 32% as White, and 30% as Hispanic. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the T-CSHCOSI-PF has two factors and high internal consistency and reliability (Cronbach's alpha =.97). This instrument will likely promote needed research on the level of patient-centered cultural sensitivity displayed by health care clinic office staff and serve as an important tool in evaluating patient perceived office staff cultural sensitivity.

Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Clinical medicine applied in public health
Diversity and culture
Public health administration or related administration

Learning Objectives:
1) Identify a new instrument designed to assess the patient perceived cultural sensitivity of health care office staff. 2) Discuss culturally sensitive healthcare in a way that includes all aspects of the healthcare delivery system, including the cultural sensitivity of office staff.

Keywords: Health Care Delivery, Cultural Competency

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I organize and evaluate community-based research interventions and research studies regarding health care access and culturally sensitive health care delivery.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.