NEW YORK, N.Y., May 17 – More than half of New York Citys Haitian, Russian, and Latino first-generation immigrants interviewed for a new report by The New York Academy of Medicine say that language barriers lead to reduced quality care for their children, prevent them from fully using health care services, and leave them dissatisfied with their medical care.

The study is the first in a series of three Academy reports on health care access for children in immigrant families, and was funded by the Foundation for Child Development.

According to the academy, federal, state, and city laws require that interpreter services and translated documents be provided to non-English-speaking patients at all health care facilities that serve Medicare and Medicaid patients, including hospitals, health clinics, and Medicaid offices. However, the academy maintains in a recently-released report that implementation of these requirements has been slow and remains inadequate.

The immigrant population of the United States has increased and diversified dramatically in recent years, said Linda Weiss, PhD, lead author of the report and senior research associate in the academys Division of Health Policy. When language barriers prevent immigrants from talking to those involved in the delivery of health care services, access to and quality of care suffer. In order to get appropriate health care services, immigrants with limited-English language abilities need linguistically appropriate services, not only during the medical visit but also when enrolling in insurance, making appointments, and following instructions on medication labels or leaflets, Weiss said.

To improve access to health care for the foreign-born and limited English proficiency population, the academy report recommends that:

Limited-English populations be informed of their right to an interpreter and to translated documents;

Healthcare and insurance staff be encouraged to proactively seek translated materials and interpretation services for patients;

Interpretation and translation services be made more available, including use of dual headset remote translation, as is offered at Bellevue Hospital.