Contact: Brad Lifford
October 15, 2010
JOHNSON CITY – A health care journal has presented an award
of excellence to an East Tennessee State University assistant
professor of public health for a study of variables that affect
the delivery of quality primary health care.
Dr. Brian Martin, an assistant professor in the ETSU College of
Public Health’s Department of Health Services
Administration, was one of only three winners chosen to receive a
Highly Commended Award at the Literati Network Awards for
Excellence 2010. Martin and his co-authors, Dr. Leiyu Shi of
Johns Hopkins University and Ryan Ward, a former graduate
assistant in ETSU’s Department of Health Services
Administration, received the award for their study of how the
race and gender of patients, as well as the language they speak,
affect their assessment of the quality of primary care they
receive.
Their study was published in the
International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance,
and some of their findings are unique. Martin said that he and
his colleagues found that language barrier – but not
necessarily gender or race – may be a key predictor.
“Our study didn’t reach the same conclusions as those
from some previous studies, because we didn’t find that
race and gender were significant factors in determining health
care quality,” Martin said. “What we did find is that
a language barrier, a patient’s ability to communicate with
his or her primary care physician, does play a significant
role.”
Martin cautioned that there needs to be additional study of the
relationship of race and gender as they relate to quality of
care, as it is well-documented that minority populations
experience disproportionate health disparities, and that several
variables can contribute to health disparities. He said that
should further study confirm their findings on the relation of
language to health care quality, it could have serious policy
implications for providers, as the percentage of patients who do
not speak English continues to grow.
“Being able to communicate with your provider really is a
basic quality issue,” Martin said. “Is a patient able
to understand and answer a physician’s questions, or is the
patient able to ask questions about treatment options? Can the
patient reach the provider after hours? All of those are
scenarios where we found that language could be a significant
barrier.”
The providers who would be most affected, Martin said, are
primary care physicians in smaller practices. Martin, who is the
coordinator of the Master of Public Health degree program and
health care management certificate program in the College of
Public Health, has conducted previous research on cost of health
care and access to it.
“Hospitals, health systems, and health departments do a
good job with language issues because they have the
resources,” Martin said. “But it could be a challenge
for a primary care provider. You would have to ask yourself,
‘Do I have someone on staff who can act as an
interpreter?’ It can be an issue, especially for smaller
practices. When providers are in a community where demographic
changes occur and you have more Spanish-speaking residents in
your community, the number of Spanish-speaking patients seen may
increase, but you also have the opportunity to draw from a larger
bilingual community in your hiring practices.”