Professional Interpreter Services and the Impact on Hospital Care Outcomes: An Integrative Review of Literature
Migration patterns have rapidly changed in Australia and elsewhere, which have contributed to increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse societies. This requires healthcare sectors to provide professional interpreter services for patients with a language barrier to eliminate healthcare dispa...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/94225 |
| _version_ | 1848765849485180928 |
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| author | Kwan, Michelle Jeemi, Zakia Norman, Richard Dantas, Jaya A R |
| author_facet | Kwan, Michelle Jeemi, Zakia Norman, Richard Dantas, Jaya A R |
| author_sort | Kwan, Michelle |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Migration patterns have rapidly changed in Australia and elsewhere, which have contributed to increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse societies. This requires healthcare sectors to provide professional interpreter services for patients with a language barrier to eliminate healthcare disparities. This integrative review aimed to investigate the impact of professional interpreter services on hospital care outcomes and the associated cost of service provision. A systematic search of five databases was conducted for peer-reviewed articles from January 1996 to December 2020. Data were extracted for the hospital setting, intervention, population, study design, outcomes and key findings. Following the PRISMA guidelines, full-text screening identified 37 articles that were analysed and included. Communication quality, hospital care outcomes and hospital costs were the three main themes identified. Closing the language gap should be a primary consideration to prevent adverse events that affect patient safety and the standard of care in hospitals. The findings of this review indicate the provision of professional interpreter services can enhance hospital care for linguistically diverse patients by improving patient–provider communication. To gain insight into the changing patterns on the outcomes of medical care, further research requires efforts by the hospital administrative system to document complete records of service usage. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:41:47Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-94225 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:41:47Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-942252024-01-22T03:42:50Z Professional Interpreter Services and the Impact on Hospital Care Outcomes: An Integrative Review of Literature Kwan, Michelle Jeemi, Zakia Norman, Richard Dantas, Jaya A R culturally and linguistically diverse patients hospital settings language barriers professional interpreter services Humans Communication Communication Barriers Hospitals Language Translating Humans Communication Communication Barriers Language Translating Hospitals Migration patterns have rapidly changed in Australia and elsewhere, which have contributed to increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse societies. This requires healthcare sectors to provide professional interpreter services for patients with a language barrier to eliminate healthcare disparities. This integrative review aimed to investigate the impact of professional interpreter services on hospital care outcomes and the associated cost of service provision. A systematic search of five databases was conducted for peer-reviewed articles from January 1996 to December 2020. Data were extracted for the hospital setting, intervention, population, study design, outcomes and key findings. Following the PRISMA guidelines, full-text screening identified 37 articles that were analysed and included. Communication quality, hospital care outcomes and hospital costs were the three main themes identified. Closing the language gap should be a primary consideration to prevent adverse events that affect patient safety and the standard of care in hospitals. The findings of this review indicate the provision of professional interpreter services can enhance hospital care for linguistically diverse patients by improving patient–provider communication. To gain insight into the changing patterns on the outcomes of medical care, further research requires efforts by the hospital administrative system to document complete records of service usage. 2023 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/94225 10.3390/ijerph20065165 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ fulltext |
| spellingShingle | culturally and linguistically diverse patients hospital settings language barriers professional interpreter services Humans Communication Communication Barriers Hospitals Language Translating Humans Communication Communication Barriers Language Translating Hospitals Kwan, Michelle Jeemi, Zakia Norman, Richard Dantas, Jaya A R Professional Interpreter Services and the Impact on Hospital Care Outcomes: An Integrative Review of Literature |
| title | Professional Interpreter Services and the Impact on Hospital Care Outcomes: An Integrative Review of Literature |
| title_full | Professional Interpreter Services and the Impact on Hospital Care Outcomes: An Integrative Review of Literature |
| title_fullStr | Professional Interpreter Services and the Impact on Hospital Care Outcomes: An Integrative Review of Literature |
| title_full_unstemmed | Professional Interpreter Services and the Impact on Hospital Care Outcomes: An Integrative Review of Literature |
| title_short | Professional Interpreter Services and the Impact on Hospital Care Outcomes: An Integrative Review of Literature |
| title_sort | professional interpreter services and the impact on hospital care outcomes: an integrative review of literature |
| topic | culturally and linguistically diverse patients hospital settings language barriers professional interpreter services Humans Communication Communication Barriers Hospitals Language Translating Humans Communication Communication Barriers Language Translating Hospitals |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/94225 |