Community Health Center Experiences of Integrating Professional Medical Interpreter Services for Patients with Limited English Proficiency

In March 2022, the California Department of Health Care Services launched the Medical Interpreter Pilot Project to assess the impact of integrating professional medical interpreter services for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) in community health centers (CHCs) that previously relied on bilingual personnel and remote services when language-concordant care was not possible. Implementation lessons were identified using thematic analysis of clinician and staff interviews (n=31) at three pilot CHCs. Facilitators of medical interpreter integration included: 1) leadership-led educational efforts targeted toward clinicians; 2) taking advantage of the benefits of in-person, onsite medical interpreters to assist patients with accessing care; 3) offering flexible, on-demand medical interpreter services; and 4) incremental implementation of interpreter services to help resolve issues before scaling up. Given that CHCs have a wide range of existing capabilities, flexible staffing models for expanding interpreter services are needed to ensure high-quality, timely language access for patients with LEP.