Linguistic discordance in emergency care
Research team
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Co-PIM. Muray (U Ottawa), P. Tanuseputro (U Ottawa)
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Co-IR. Batista (U Ottawa), E. Bernheim (U Ottawa), Lise Bjerre (U Ottawa), A. Gauthier (Laurentian U), R. Hakimjavadi (U Ottawa), S. Johnston (Institut du savoir Montfort – ISM), Sathya Karunananthan (U Ottawa), K. K. MacLeod (Carleton U), C. Kendall (U Ottawa), C-E. Lahaie (ISM), J-R. Landry (ISM), D. Prud’homme (U Moncton), M. Reaume (U Ottawa), P. Tang (OHRI)
Funding Agency
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CNFS National Secretariat ($49,952)Period: 2023-2025
Summary
The Canadian healthcare system is currently under significant pressure across all sectors, including emergency services. The steady increase in the number of visits, the aging population, rapid advances in medical technology, and the growing complexity of clinical cases are forcing emergency services to become more efficient. In this demanding context, it remains essential to recognize the importance of providing patients with care in their preferred language in order to better meet their needs and ensure high-quality, safe services.
In 2022, our research team published a study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ)1 showing that linguistic concordance between the attending physician and frail hospitalized patients was associated with better clinical outcomes. For French-speaking patients, this concordance led to:
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A 24% reduction in the risk of death in hospital,
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A 36% decrease in the risk of harm during hospitalization,
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And a 7% decrease in the average length of stay.
As a follow-up to this work, we want to replicate these analyses among long-term care residents and home care recipients in Ontario who have been treated in emergency departments. The goal is to better understand the links between language concordance and indicators of quality and safety of care, during and after the emergency department visit.
Using administrative health services data provided by ICES, this new study will analyze the impact of language concordance between physicians and patients in the emergency department on various health indicators. This innovative study will comprehensively document the patient’s language, the physician’s language, and their combined effects on the quality and safety of care, both in the emergency department and during hospitalization and discharge.
1 1.Seale, E., Reaume, M., Batista, R., Eddeen, A. B., Roberts, R., Rhodes, E., … & Tanuseputro, P. (2022). Patient–physician language concordance and quality and safety outcomes among frail home care recipients admitted to hospital in Ontario, Canada. CMAJ, 194(26), E899-E908. http://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.212155