Immigrants often need help communicating with healthcare providers. Medical organizations must recognize this and find ways to provide equitable care to meet every patient’s needs. Furthermore, medical providers must be able to deliver culturally competent care. This character goes far beyond language barriers.
When understanding locum tenens trends, care for immigrants must be considered. Studies show that doctors are more verbally dominant when speaking with African American patients. Asian, Hispanic, black, and Alaska native adults often report negative care experiences at rates much higher than their white peers. The same holds for older individuals, women, and those who are LGBTQ. These individuals often feel as if medical professionals dismiss their health concerns. Locum tenens may be able to meet the needs of these patients to ensure they receive optimal care.
Culturally Competent Care
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health has issued guidelines for culturally competent care. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have CLAS standards that will help reduce disparities. When hiring new staff, healthcare organizations must ensure diversity. In addition, they should train all workers in cultural competence and provide them with robust resources and services to ensure all care is inclusive. The same training should be provided to locum tenens who move from place to place. They often encounter diverse populations and must be able to meet the needs of all.
The Role of Technology
A person might assume that technology can help provide culturally competent care. Sadly, this is not the case. Communication breakdowns occur when patients are discharged for the heart from the hospital.
Certain groups are impacted more than others. Many patients fail to use portals and lack access to vital healthcare information. Medical professionals do not help in this area as they are less likely to offer patient portal information to Black and Hispanic patients than white patients. This unconscious bias hurts those in need. Patients may be charged for the practitioner’s time when they call with a question. Countless patients are hesitant to pay this fee, which will only deepen disparities. Locum tenens must ensure patients have the information they need to better their health, including information on valuable resources such as patient portals.
Any technology implemented by healthcare organizations must accommodate the needs of diverse patient populations while prioritizing accessibility. This technology must also reduce care fragmentation. Fragmented care leads to worse patient outcomes, which nobody wants to see.
Healthcare organizations must use their patients’ preferred communication channels when implementing technology. For many, this will be text messaging.
The goal is to ensure patients can effortlessly communicate with their care teams. Using platforms with which patients are already familiar will help build trust between the patient and provider.
Locum tendons help bridge gaps in healthcare in more ways than one. As they move between healthcare organizations, they see areas where culturally competent care is being provided along with areas in need of improvement in the different organizations. Sharing feedback with these facilities’ healthcare leaders will help ensure all individuals can access equitable care. Locum tenens may provide recommendations on technology that will benefit an organization, additional training that may be needed, or ways to improve communication. The experience they gain when taking on these temporary positions will benefit all who choose to work with healthcare professionals.
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