Clinical Trial Details
— Status: Recruiting
Administrative data
| NCT number |
NCT05791240 |
| Other study ID # |
2022-5221 |
| Secondary ID |
|
| Status |
Recruiting |
| Phase |
N/A
|
| First received |
|
| Last updated |
|
| Start date |
April 3, 2023 |
| Est. completion date |
June 2024 |
Study information
| Verified date |
January 2023 |
| Source |
Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago |
| Contact |
Mary Pilarz, MD |
| Phone |
3122274000 |
| Email |
mpilarz[@]luriechildrens.org |
| Is FDA regulated |
No |
| Health authority |
|
| Study type |
Interventional
|
Clinical Trial Summary
The goal of this study is to compare interpreter use rates before and after allowing
non-English speaking families to call an interpreter themselves. The main questions it aims
to answer are:
Is it feasible for families to call an interpreter themselves? Will allowing families to call
an interpreter themselves increase the rate of professional interpreter utilization?
Participants will be given an interpreting tablet and instructed to use the interpreter
application whenever they would like to talk to the medical team. There will be a short
survey on the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention for the patients and the
medical team. The study team will then look at interpreter use rates before and after the
intervention.
Description:
More than 25 million people in the United States have limited English proficiency. Patients
with limited English proficiency face worse clinical outcomes than their English proficient
counterparts, like longer length of stays, increased adverse events, and decreased
understanding of their child's care. Language barriers may be particularly important in the
pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), where parents encounter challenging medical decisions
like choosing to pursue high-risk therapies or making end-of-life decisions.
Professional interpretation has been shown to mitigate negative outcomes for this population.
For instance, one study showed decreased mortality in the pediatric intensive care unit
(PICU) for Latino patients after in-person interpreter availability was increased; however,
interpreters are still widely underutilized. One study in a PICU revealed that only 53% of
doctors and 41% of nurses used an interpreter "often" for their patients who needed it. To
improve clinical outcomes for this population, communication with patients with LEP needs to
be improved.
Health disparities as a result of limited English proficiency are unjust, and a just medical
system would allow patients with LEP to access the same quality of care as their
English-proficiency counterparts. One way to improve communication may be to provide families
with an opportunity to initiate interpreter use on their own. Although families have
expressed a desire for this, no previous studies have examined the effects of this strategy.
Hypothesis:
The study team hypothesizes that implementing a novel family-initiated interpretation system
will lead to greater use of interpreters, compared to the current standard of care. The
investigators plan to test this hypothesis in the PICU. The specific aims are:
Explore the feasibility, usability, and acceptability of a family-initiated interpreter
intervention among healthcare providers, and the acceptability of the intervention among
families with limited English proficiency.
Examine the impact of family-initiated interpretation intervention on professional
interpreter utilization by comparing pre and post-intervention professional interpreter
utilization rates in the PICU.
By allowing families to initiate contact with an interpreter, the study team believe that
interpreter utilization will increase, with the potential to decrease disparities in the
limited English proficiency population. This work will inform future work to improve care for
patients with limited English proficiency, and the investigators plan to investigate the
clinical impact of this interpreter modality in future projects.
