Background

Georgetown Health Policy Institute has conducted extensive research on inequity in healthcare and have arrived at the follow definition of cultural competency in medicine: “Individual values, beliefs, and behaviors about health and well-being are shaped by various factors such as race, ethnicity, nationality, language, gender, socioeconomic status, physical and mental ability, sexual orientation, and occupation. Cultural competence in health care is broadly defined as the ability of providers and organizations to understand and integrate these factors, specifically those that relate to culture, into the delivery and structure of the health care system.”

Key Statistics

  • African Americans are 1.7 times more likely to leave without being seen in emergency department visits to White Americans
  • Asians are 1.2 times less likely to have health providers listened carefully, explained things clearly, respected what they had to say, and spent enough time with them compared to White Americans
  • Hispanics are 2 times more likely to not have a specific source of ongoing care than Non-Hispanic White Americans
  • 43% of Hispanics speaking primarily Spanish and 39% of Asians speaking primarily Non-English language report communication problems with their physicians
  • 15% of African Americans, 13% of Hispanics, 11% of Asian Americans feel they would receive better health care if they were of a different race or ethnicity, compared with 1% of White Americans
  • A language other than English is spoken at home in 21 percent of U.S. households.
  • One analysis of medical malpractice claims found that 2.5 percent of the reviewed claims were the result of inadequate language services.

Key Sources and Further Resources

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