Citation

Behar S, Benson Ii R, Kurzweil A, Azen C, Nager AL. Disaster Med. Public Health Prep. 2013; 7(5): 475-480.

Affiliation

Departments of Emergency Medicine & Pediatrics, Los Angeles County Medical Center, and Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Publisher Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/dmp.2013.86

PMID

24274127

Abstract

During disasters, the needs of victims outstrip available resources. Rapid assessment of patients must be performed; however, language barriers can be an impediment to efficient patient assessment, especially if interpreter resources are limited. Dependency on interpretive services requiring technology such a telephones, cell phones, and video conferencing may be inefficient, as they may be unavailable during disaster conditions. A low-tech, portable tool that aids in communication with non-English speakers would be beneficial. The medical emergency communication (MEC) book, developed at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, has the potential to be a useful tool in this capacity. The goal of this pilot study was to compare the accuracy of a newly developed disaster-focused medical history obtained from Spanish-speaking patients or caregivers using the MEC book, compared to a control group with whom no book was used. Our hypothesis was that use of the MEC book improves accuracy of medical history taking between English-only speaking health care workers and Spanish-speaking patients better than a monolingual clinician trying to take a medical history without it. We anticipated a higher overall score in the group of subjects whose histories were taken using the MEC book than in the control group. Patient satisfaction with the MEC book also was measured. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2013;0:1-6).

Language: en