| Articles and Publications
The following articles and publications feature the lessons of Speaking Together and its efforts to improve the quality and availability of health care language services. Click on the links below to access the full text.
Issue Brief Series
This series of issue briefs was developed to address current issues in quality improvement and language services:
 The Case for Language Services from the C-Suite
CEOs provide executive-level commentary on why hospitals and health systems must focus on how and when they provide language services. Health care leaders have found that using data to analyze how the organization has been meeting the language needs of its patients has helped them address resource allocation. These executives also point to language services as a valuable resource for reducing treatment costs and improving the bottom line.
Addressing Language Barriers in Health Care, Asks "What's at Stake?"
To face the challenge of language barriers, leading hospitals have joined a national effort to use performance measures to improve communications between providers and patients that need language services. The program is leading hospitals through a ‘learning network’ to test new ideas, quantify results and share lessons learned. The findings of the program have implications for hospitals nationwide, as language barriers can hinder efficiency in delivering care and can require greater use of resources because of longer appointments.
 Improving Quality of Health Care Relies on Effective Language Services
Performance data has helped hospitals and providers learn better ways to provide language services to diverse patient populations. To improve the quality of health care, hospitals need to look at performance data such as the percentage of patients that need language services, what percentage of patients receive these services, and whether interpreters are available at times when effective communication is critical.
More Publications
 Journal of General Internal Medicine: Studies show importance of language services on disparities, quality of care
This commentary describes the progress made by hospitals participating in the Speaking Together learning collaborative. Hospitals began collecting performance information on the timeliness and efficiency of language services to improve responsiveness to patients and providers. Hospitals have made improvements in care by engaging in meaningful quality improvement efforts that integrate language services with complex clinical care processes.
In Any Language: Improving the quality and availability of language services in hospitals
By using quality improvement tools and techniques familiar to the hospital world (like performance measurement and rapid-cycle change strategies), hospitals have able to improve the quality and availability of health care language services for patients that need them. The program has enabled hospitals to monitor performance and realize measurable improvements in the delivery of language services to patients.
Hospital Language Services: Quality Improvement and Performance Measurement (coming soon)
Researchers at The George Washington University employed a multi-stage process to support development of language services performance measures for hospitals to use in a nationwide learning collaborative. The measures are grounded in the Institute of Medicine’s six domains of quality, and underwent multiple levels of review prior to pilot testing. Experiences with the measures highlight the challenges of collecting performance data that has never been collected before. It also encouraged hospitals to engage clinicians, administrators and leadership to improve care for linguistically diverse populations.
 Patients Give Feedback on Language Services at Ten Hospitals
Organizations can overcome language barriers by increasing access to language services and by taking a patient-centered approach to service delivery. Lake Research Partners has documented the findings from focus groups with patients needing language services. This summary report, includes findings from focus groups held in the ten Speaking Together communites across the nation in order to provides feedback on ways to enhance the quality of language services and to guide hospitals to overcome language barriers and improve the language services they provide.
Challenges in Language Services: Identifying and Responding to Patients' Needs
Effective communication, vital to the quality of health care, can be especially difficult for those with limited English proficiency. This article gathers information on current hospital-based language service programs to evaluate the success of language service programs reaching limited English proficient patients. Findings show that language service programs are facing significant challenges reaching limited English proficient patients.
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