CHIA opposes cuts to Interpreter Services at
San Francisco General Hospital - or any other healthcare facility in
California!
Cutting interpreter services as a "cost-saving"
measure may actually lead to increased costs because fewer
interpreters means increased amounts of time that physicians wait for
an interpreter. Since doctors earn much more than interpreters
do, this is a poor strategy for hospitals looking to save money, and
may well also lead to worse health outcomes for patients.
CHIA Vice President Terry Bautista
presented CHIA's perspective to the
San Francisco Health Commission
Wednesday, February 4. The Health Commission has oversight of
the entire
San
Francisco Department of Public Health. Here is part of Terry's
report on the meeting:
"Thanks
to CHIA members Paolo and Elizabeth for the encouragement as I
instantly responded to the distress of
Gloria Garcia-Orme,
Nurse Manager over Patient Relations at SFGH, who oversees Interpreter
Services, Patient Relations, and Patient Triage (a design of Gloria's
to address the misdirection, non-information, and site navigation that
patients often face when coming into their facility) has not seen
recommendations of such deep cuts in all of her 19 years at SF
General. Her Patient Relations Triage nurse spoke out, interpreters
made appeals, SEIU reps blasted the commissioners, a Spanish-speaking
director for services to Day Laborers underscored the negative
consequences of cutting bilingual services."
"My presentation is included here below.
It is fortunate that I was close enough to get to the Commission
hearings on the budget cuts in such short notice. Gloria will be
writing a letter to CHIA, which will be included in the Spring
newsletter."
"My appeal goes out
broadly to CHIA members and others to support the fight against budget
cuts of 7.5 interpreter positions at SFGH (50% of department
staff), amounting to $500,000 savings. Interestingly, the
Commission is retaining programs and services that have to do with
intervention, i.e. Health Families and others. I am suggesting a
massive letter writing campaign from CHIA members and their respective
institutions, the
National Council on Interpreting in Health Care and the advocacy
groups involved in The California Endowment Language Access network
directed to SF Health Commission Chair, Edward Chow, MD. (call
the Commission office at 415-554-2666 for an email address for
Dr. Chow) I am concerned that if this cut is successful that
other institutions will think that interpreter services are expendable
without considering the serious consequences for care providers and
their LEP patients. There was mention that hospital services could
rely more heavily on alternative services, like Language Line Services
and other telephonic interpreter services. (At $3-5 per minute, this
does not make sense for LEP patients speaking the principle languages
of San Francisco) Let the
SF Board of
Supervisors and their County Health Commission know that a cut so
deep sets a bad precedence! Please forward to your networks."
Thanks for any help you can give to
Gloria and her staff at SFGH.
Terry, CHIA VP
For CHIA's letter, click here
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