Caring Across Languages: Clinician Perceptions of Variability in US Pediatric Outpatient Epilepsy Care

Little is known about outpatient language access practices in the United States for children with epilepsy whose families use languages other than English (LOE) for medical care. The Pediatric Epilepsy Research Consortium (PERC) aimed to characterize clinician perceptions of institutional practices by developing and conducting a descriptive survey. We weighted statistical outcomes to equally represent clinician opinion from each center and conducted deductive thematic analysis of open-ended responses. One hundred clinicians from 40 institutions (53.3% institutional response rate) completed the survey. Access to both interpretation and translation services was uneven across PERC institutions. Seizure action plans in all common LOE were available at 15.2% of centers. Despite access to professional interpreters, 61.2% reported using nonprofessional interpretation at times. Qualitative themes included clinician burden, necessary resources, language certification practices, nonprofessional interpretation, translation delays, languages of lesser diffusion, technology use, trust in remote interpretation, language concordance, and perceptions of certification requirements. Findings highlight the need for interventions and guidelines to promote language-access for children with epilepsy whose families use LOE.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Child Neurology
Published
2026-09-11
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/08830738261484301
Primary Topic
Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Caring Across Languages: Clinician Perceptions of Variability in US Pediatric Outpatient Epilepsy Care

Alyssa Coffin, Laura A. Kirkpatrick, Alcy Torres, Joanna García Pierce et al.
Journal of Child Neurology
Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare
article

Caring Across Languages: Clinician Perceptions of Variability in US Pediatric Outpatient Epilepsy Care

Alyssa Coffin, Laura A. Kirkpatrick, Alcy Torres, Joanna García Pierce, Maria A. Planchart Ferretto, Christopher W. Beatty, Alisa Khan, Tobias Loddenkemper, Debopam Samanta, Marcella Luercio, Rebecca García Sosa, David N. Williams, Bianca Quiñones‐Pérez, Avantika Singh, Christina Briscoe, Qian-Zhou JoJo Yang, PERC Health Equity Special Interest Group, Karen Skjei, Gretchen M. Berrios-Siervo
article en

Abstract

Little is known about outpatient language access practices in the United States for children with epilepsy whose families use languages other than English (LOE) for medical care. The Pediatric Epilepsy Research Consortium (PERC) aimed to characterize clinician perceptions of institutional practices by developing and conducting a descriptive survey. We weighted statistical outcomes to equally represent clinician opinion from each center and conducted deductive thematic analysis of open-ended responses. One hundred clinicians from 40 institutions (53.3% institutional response rate) completed the survey. Access to both interpretation and translation services was uneven across PERC institutions. Seizure action plans in all common LOE were available at 15.2% of centers. Despite access to professional interpreters, 61.2% reported using nonprofessional interpretation at times. Qualitative themes included clinician burden, necessary resources, language certification practices, nonprofessional interpretation, translation delays, languages of lesser diffusion, technology use, trust in remote interpretation, language concordance, and perceptions of certification requirements. Findings highlight the need for interventions and guidelines to promote language-access for children with epilepsy whose families use LOE.

Journal of Child Neurology
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US), Boston Medical Center (US), Boston Children's Hospital (US), Lurie Children's Hospital (US), Nationwide Children's Hospital (US), Harvard University (US), University of Pittsburgh (US), Medical College of Wisconsin (US), Children's Hospital Colorado (US), Boston Children's Museum (US), El Paso Community College (US), University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (US), University of Colorado Denver (US)
Quality Education
Openalex Percentile: Top 6%
Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare
DOISourceOpenAlex
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