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Texas hospitals adapt to more Spanish-speaking patients

Patient Financial Services Weekly Advisor, September 21, 2007

Hospitals are adjusting to a growing number of Spanish-speaking patients by creating Spanish language-friendly resources in reception areas, according to a story in the Dallas Morning News.

In Texas, the state with the fastest-growing number of Hispanics, hospitals are adapting by offering signs in Spanish, providing translators who help patients in reception areas and producing all-Spanish versions of their Web sites.

At the Methodist Dallas Medical Center in Oak Cliff and Methodist Charlton Medical Center in Dallas, 22 percent of patients in 2006 were Hispanic. It was 14 percent just 10 years ago.

At Parkland Hospital in Dallas, medical forms used by its patient access staff are now available in Spanish. There are Spanish signs in the hospital as well.

Texas Health Resources, the largest hospital system in North Texas, has a Spanish version of its Web site, www.texashealth.org.

Methodist Healthcare in San Antonio, the city with the largest Hispanic population in the country, provides legal documents in Spanish as well as Spanish-language magazines for patients waiting for service.

The University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth teaches students how to use community-based resources to help Hispanic patients.

To read the story in the Dallas Morning News, click here.

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