Case Studies
Discovering and Serving Diverse Population
The patient population of Heywood Hospital in Gardner, Mass., seemed to lack diversity. But by actively collecting racial, ethnic and religious data, the 134-bed hospital discovered pockets of socioeconomic and minority groups who could benefit from specialized services. Heywood formed a multicultural task force to assess patients' diversity and determine if staff reflected such diversity. Prior to forming the task force, the hospital only provided interpreter services for American Sign Language. Responding to community needs, Heywood developed an in-house interpreter program that now provides video relay for deaf and hard-of-hearing patients and in-house interpretation in Spanish, ASL, French, Portuguese and Vietnamese. Heywood also mandates training for new staff as well as annual training for all staff on cultural competency issues. As a result, staff members have become more culturally competent, and care has become more patient-centered. The number of minority patients at Heywood has increased. In 2001, Heywood had 56 hospital encounters with deaf or hard-of-hearing patients. In 2010, the hospital had 1,422 encounters with limited English proficiency patients, including deaf patients. Contact Barbara Nealon, director of social service, at nea.b@heywood.org.
The patient population of Heywood Hospital in Gardner, Mass., seemed to lack diversity. But by actively collecting racial, ethnic and religious data, the 134-bed hospital discovered pockets of socioeconomic and minority groups who could benefit from specialized services. Heywood formed a multicultural task force to assess patients' diversity and determine if staff reflected such diversity. Prior to forming the task force, the hospital only provided interpreter services for American Sign Language. Responding to community needs, Heywood developed an in-house interpreter program that now provides video relay for deaf and hard-of-hearing patients and in-house interpretation in Spanish, ASL, French, Portuguese and Vietnamese. Heywood also mandates training for new staff as well as annual training for all staff on cultural competency issues. As a result, staff members have become more culturally competent, and care has become more patient-centered. The number of minority patients at Heywood has increased. In 2001, Heywood had 56 hospital encounters with deaf or hard-of-hearing patients. In 2010, the hospital had 1,422 encounters with limited English proficiency patients, including deaf patients. Contact Barbara Nealon, director of social service, at nea.b@heywood.org.