By Stacy Cooper Bailey, Romana Hasnain-Wynia, Alice Hm Chen, Urmimala Sarkar
More than 24 million people living in the United States have limited English proficiency (LEP), defined as the ability to speak English less than very well.1 Many federal, state and local laws require language access in health care, or the ability to attain comprehensible and meaningful health services and materials in one’s primary language.2,3 Despite these requirements, research indicates language barriers persist in pharmacy practice.4–8 Interpreters are rarely available to aid pharmacists in counseling LEP patients, prescription (Rx) medication instructions are frequently unavailable in non-English languages and Rx materials are often poorly translated into other languages.4–8 These barriers may explain … Read More