Healthy Living

It can be a daunting experience to navigate the health care system.  An excellent program has been created by the National Patient Safety Foundation called “Ask Me 3.”

This is a patient education initiative designed to promote communication between health care providers and patients in order to improve health outcomes. The program encourages patients to understand the answers to three questions:

• What is my main problem?
• What do I need to do?
• Why is it important for me to do this?

People are encouraged to ask their providers these three simple but essential questions in every health care interaction. Likewise, providers should make sure their patients understand the answers to these three questions.

But what if the person does not understand English ?

Imagine being handed a prescription, written in another language, and being told, “Prenez ces pilules trois fois par jour.”  Unless you understand French, you would not know the instructions are “Take these pills three times a day.” 

As The Bulletin has reported recently, 37 different languages are spoken in the homes of students attending NFA.   So how has Backus Hospital and the Hartford HealthCare system dealt with this challenge?   Backus has contracted with two language interpreter services.  The first is a phone language interpreter service, with two handsets, allowing for a three-way conversation — the patient, the health care provider, and the certified medical interpreter.   The second is a video system, where the patient can see the interpreter and vice versa.  This video system is also used for sign language interpretation for hearing impaired patients.  Both systems are available 24 hours a day.

Better communication and understanding result in better health outcomes... and isn’t that really everyone’s goal?