Physicians Interrupting Patients

Excerpt

Dr. Ortega highlights an incredibly important, often under-studied but common aspect of current medical practice—the nuance of multi-lingual medical encounters. Medical encounters with discordant languages between the clinician and patient bring with them numerous challenges, not the least of which is time.¹ These visits likely require at least twice as much time, which often is not accounted for when they are scheduled. This makes time constraints even more pressing, and increase the risk for patient interruption, clinicians that feel pressured by time and inadequate communication and care.^{1, 2} Furthermore, these visits rely on expression and perception of empathy through a third party (the interpreter).³ …