Most Non-English Speakers in the U.S. Are Turned Away Before Their First Cancer Visit According to New Research in JNCCN
PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Sept. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- New research in the September 2023 issue of JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network reveals an alarming lack of access for non-English speakers who called hospitals across the United States looking for information on cancer care services. The researchers from University of Michigan set up a series of simulated patient calls to various hospital general information lines, speaking in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. Nearly all of the English-speaking callers were provided with next steps to access cancer care—such as a telephone number for presumed clinic or transfer to the department that was presumed to provide the requested care—while just over a third of the Spanish speakers had the same experience, and even fewer for Mandarin-speaking callers.
- "Our study found significant language-based disparities in patients' access to cancer care well before they are seen by a physician," said lead researcher Debbie W. Chen, MD, University of Michigan.
- "If patients with cancer cannot access information on where to obtain the appropriate cancer care, what other critical information and services are they not able to access in our healthcare system?"
- The calls were made Monday through Friday between 8:00am and 5:00pm local time, between November 8, 2021 and June 23, 2022.
- The researchers anticipate that patients who speak other, less commonly spoken, non-English languages may face even greater barriers to care.