ArticleJournal of general internal medicine2023
Language-Concordant Care: a Qualitative Study Examining Implementation of Physician Non-English Language Proficiency Assessment.
Article in Journal of general internal medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Influence of Language and Physician-Patient Racial Concordance on Diabetes Control: An Analysis of Consultations in California Clinics.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Language Access in Healthcare: Aligning Policy and Evidence to Improve Patient Experience Through Professional Interpretation and Language- Concordant Care.Journal of patient experience · 2026Article
- A qualitative study exploring the use of interpreters in a healthcare setting for children and young people seeking asylum and refugees.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Language-Concordant Health Care: Implementation of a Bilingual Competency Program.Joint Commission journal on quality and patient safety · 2025Article
- Partial language concordance in primary care communication: What is lost, what is gained, and how to optimize.Patient education and counseling · 2025Article
- Article
- Physicians' Perspectives on Using Direct Observation to Assess Non-English Language Proficiency for Clinical Practice: A Qualitative Study.Joint Commission journal on quality and patient safety · 2025Article
- A Multi-Modality Conversation Analysis of Post Expansions Among Physicians in Ambulance: A Qualitative Descriptive Study.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2025Article
- Article
- Qualified Multilingual Assessment Policy for US Medical Students: A National Delphi Consensus Study.Teaching and learning in medicineReview
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLanguage concordance can increase access to care for patients with language barriers and improve patient health outcomes. However, systematically assessing and tracking physician non-English language skills remains uncommon in most health systems. This is a missed opportunity for health systems to maximize language-concordant care.
objectiveTo determine barriers and facilitators to participation in non-English language proficiency assessment among primary care physicians.
designQualitative, semi-structured interviews.
participantsEleven fully and partially bilingual primary care physicians from a large academic health system with a language certification program (using a clinician oral proficiency interview). APPROACH: Interviews aimed to identify barriers and facilitators to participation in non-English language assessment. Two researchers independently and iteratively coded transcripts using a thematic analysis approach with constant comparison to identify themes. KEY
resultsMost participants were women (N= 9; 82%). Participants reported proficiency in Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian, and Spanish. All fully bilingual participants (n=5) had passed the language assessment; of the partially bilingual participants (n=6), four did not test, one passed with marginal proficiency, and one did not pass. Three themes emerged as barriers to assessment participation: (1) beliefs about the negative consequences (emotional and material) of not passing the test, (2) time constraints and competing demands, and (3) challenging test format and structure. Four themes emerged as facilitators to increase assessment adoption: (1) messaging consistent with professional ethos, (2) organizational culture that incentivizes certification, (3) personal empowerment about language proficiency, and (4) individuals championing certification.
conclusionsTo increase language assessment participation and thus ensure quality language-concordant care, health systems must address the identified barriers physicians experience and leverage potential facilitators. Findings can inform health system interventions to standardize the requirements and process, increase transparency, provide resources for preparation and remediation, utilize messaging focused on patient care quality and safety, and incentivize participation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.