Multilingual competencies among ambulatory care providers in three German Federal States.
Language barrier
Language proficiency
Migration
Primary care
Journal
BMC primary care
ISSN: 2731-4553
Titre abrégé: BMC Prim Care
Pays: England
ID NLM: 9918300889006676
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
06 12 2022
06 12 2022
Historique:
received:
05
05
2022
accepted:
24
11
2022
entrez:
6
12
2022
pubmed:
7
12
2022
medline:
15
12
2022
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Providing medical care to newly arrived migrants presents multiple challenges. A major challenge is a lack of a common language in the absence of language interpretation services. We examine the multilingualism of German physicians and clinical psychotherapists providing ambulatory care. We retrieved publicly available data from the Associations of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians provider registry of three German federal states (Lower Saxony, Saarland, Bavaria). We selected and grouped relevant practice-based disciplines. We used descriptive statistics to analyze the provider's multilingualism among different disciplines. 69.6% of ambulatory providers offer consultations only in German. 15.5% of providers reported offering consultations in one additional non-German language, and 14.9% in two or more additional languages. Most common additional languages were English (28.6%) and French (9.9%). 1.4% of providers reported offering consultation in at least one language of the Middle Eastern region (Arabic, Dari, Hebrew, Kurdish, Pashtu, Farsi, and Turkish). There were differences in the offered languages between the medical disciplines with the highest mean rates found for gynecologists and obstetricians, urologists, and general surgeons. Psychotherapeutic disciplines offered consultation in other languages significantly less often. Our study suggests a significant numeric mismatch in the number of providers offering consultations in the languages of people seeking protection in Germany. The resulting language barriers are compromising equitable access and quality of care.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
Providing medical care to newly arrived migrants presents multiple challenges. A major challenge is a lack of a common language in the absence of language interpretation services. We examine the multilingualism of German physicians and clinical psychotherapists providing ambulatory care.
METHODS
We retrieved publicly available data from the Associations of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians provider registry of three German federal states (Lower Saxony, Saarland, Bavaria). We selected and grouped relevant practice-based disciplines. We used descriptive statistics to analyze the provider's multilingualism among different disciplines.
RESULTS
69.6% of ambulatory providers offer consultations only in German. 15.5% of providers reported offering consultations in one additional non-German language, and 14.9% in two or more additional languages. Most common additional languages were English (28.6%) and French (9.9%). 1.4% of providers reported offering consultation in at least one language of the Middle Eastern region (Arabic, Dari, Hebrew, Kurdish, Pashtu, Farsi, and Turkish). There were differences in the offered languages between the medical disciplines with the highest mean rates found for gynecologists and obstetricians, urologists, and general surgeons. Psychotherapeutic disciplines offered consultation in other languages significantly less often.
CONCLUSION
Our study suggests a significant numeric mismatch in the number of providers offering consultations in the languages of people seeking protection in Germany. The resulting language barriers are compromising equitable access and quality of care.
Identifiants
pubmed: 36474173
doi: 10.1186/s12875-022-01926-1
pii: 10.1186/s12875-022-01926-1
pmc: PMC9724318
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
315Subventions
Organisme : Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
ID : 495192971
Informations de copyright
© 2022. The Author(s).
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