Virginia Hospitals Struggle to Meet Demands of Growing Immigrant Population

Thousands of immigrants in Virginia face obstacles to health care and other services that "many have trouble overcoming," the Richmond Times-Dispatch says in a special report, the second in a three-part series titled "Chasing a Dream." Many immigrants cannot speak English, and service providers, including hospitals, have "struggl[ed]" to provide translators. While bilingual clerks or registration desk employees have increased in Virginia emergency rooms -- and some hospitals use interpreters on an "as-needed basis" through 24-hour telephone services -- doctors and nurses "usually" cannot understand immigrant patients. The Times-Dispatch reports that the "patchwork approach" to serving a Hispanic population that has grown 149% since 1990 in the Richmond-Petersburg, Va., area "concerns" the Hispanic community and medical personnel. In addition, medical professionals also must treat patients who speak many Asian languages and dialects, but the "lack of a common language" for Asians "makes efforts to reach that group more difficult." To explore the "severity" of the problem, the Times-Dispatch called area ERs, asking whether employees could speak Spanish. Only one hospital, Chippenham Medical Center, said "yes without stipulation." Elisa Montalvo, director of the Office for the Hispanic Apostolate for the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, said that the findings "didn't surprise" her, adding, "It is a problem as far as the Hispanic community all over the country getting accessible health care in Spanish." She said, "I think the health clinics and the free clinics have been very sensitive to the Hispanic community, and it's getting better. But I don't know about the emergency rooms." According to Dr. Emilio Torres, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Chippenham, the problem has increased with the population. He said that doctors "usually use the translation lines or call a bilingual worker from other parts of the hospital." In addition, he said that other issues have "[e]xacerbat[ed] the language difficulty," adding, "Most patients are illegal immigrants, and they want to avoid coming to the ER, so their problems tend to be worse when they do show up" (Farmer, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 4/30). To access the entire series, click here.