Study finds gaps in language support for medication instructions
· News-MedicalPharmacies that receive federal funds must provide language support to make sure patients can understand their medication instructions. A survey of 169 outpatient prescribers at a large academic medical center found widespread uncertainty about how language support actually works. The researchers found:
- Most (80.5%) did not know whether the pharmacy provided translated labels.
- More than one-fourth of prescribers (27.8%) were unsure whether the pharmacy received their communications about instruction translation.
- Few respondents (8.3%) informed patients that they could request non-English medication instructions from their pharmacy.
Why it matters: These findings highlight the critical need to coordinate language services between institutions and among patients, prescribers, and pharmacy team members.
Source:
American Academy of Family Physicians
Journal reference: