March 23, 2007 - A large federal initiative to improve chronic disease care for community health center patients has "significantly improved" processes of care for asthma and diabetes, say researchers at Harvard Medical School.
In the Literature
February 27, 2007 - There has been relatively little research documenting the health-related language barriers facing older adults. This Fund-supported study finds that Medicare beneficiaries with limited English proficiency are less likely than those who are proficient in English to have access to a consistent source of care and less likely to receive important preventive care.
In the Literature
January 30, 2007 - Emerging evidence indicates that targeted efforts to measure and improve the quality of health care may be able to reduce, or even eliminate, disparities, while improving care for all patients. A new Fund report assesses whether safety net hospitals treating large minority populations can use measures adopted by the Hospital Quality Alliance to collect quality data by patients' race and ethnicity.
Fund Report
January 18, 2007 - Many benefits offices, which help people apply for Medicaid and other public programs, lack knowledge and resources about language services. The National Health Law Program evaluted these offices and offers strategies, such as written language access plans, recruiting bilingual staff for dual roles, and interpreter competency testing.
Fund Report
January 17, 2007 - Latino children are more likely to be uninsured than whites or African Americans. Fund-supported research in Pediatrics pinpoints the risk factors affecting Latino children: having parents who are not U.S. citizens, having two working parents, and having low family income.
In the Literature
January 11, 2007 - Federally funded community health centers provide care to more than 15 million Americans, including many minority patients. A Health Affairs study by Fund-supported researchers finds that while these centers generally provide good care, gaps in quality exist, particularly for the uninsured.
In the Literature
December 8, 2006 - Parents with limited English proficiency, providers, hospital staff, and quality improvement professionals agree that language and cultural differences lead to communication issues that can have a pervasive, negative impact on the quality and safety of hospital care children receive, according to a Fund-supported study. Yet, the authors find these stakeholders disagree about what exactly needs to change.
In the Literature
October 18, 2006 - In this commentary, Paul Schyve, of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, analyzes the models of care offered by the five papers released at the Fifth National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations.
Commentary
October 18, 2006 - In this commentary, Robyn Y. Nishimi, Ph.D., chief operating officer of the National Quality Forum, says it's time to move the cultural competency agenda forward--and that the best way to do that is through measurement and public reporting of performance on this dimension of quality.
Commentary
October 18, 2006 - In this Fund report, the researchers identify the five domains of culturally competent care that can best be assessed through the patient's perspective.
Fund Report
October 18, 2006 - Using case studies of organizations that have implemented cultural competency initiatives, the authors of this report, who are based at the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, recommend ways to put cultural competency into practice.
Fund Report
October 18, 2006 - Promising research indicates cultural and linguistic competence improves health outcomes and patient well-being, the authors find in their study. But more work is needed, they say, to establish a solid "business case" for providing such care.
Fund Report
October 17, 2006 - Focusing on the Institute of Medicine's six principles for designing a high-quality health care system, the author of this Fund report identifies areas where cultural competence could be used to reduce disparities and achieve high performance health care.
Fund Report
October 17, 2006 - The authors of this Fund report consider the intersection of patient-centered care and cultural competency.
Fund Report
August 29, 2006 - Health care organizations that collect data on patients' race, ethnicity, and primary language are more likely than those without such information to work toward reducing disparities in care. Yet, a new Fund-supported study finds data collection efforts are inconsistent across organizations.
In the Literature