Length of Stay for Patients With Limited English Proficiency in Pediatric Urgent Care.

Creator(s)

Aimy T. Patel, Children's Mercy HospitalFollow
Brian R. Lee, Children's Mercy HospitalFollow
Ravneet Donegan
Sharon G. Humiston, Children’s Mercy HospitalFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2020

Identifier

DOI: 10.1177/0009922820902439

Abstract

This retrospective chart review compared the length of stay (LOS) of families with limited English proficiency (LEP) versus English-speaking families seen in 3 pediatric urgent care centers (PUCCs). Visits were included for patients aged 2 months to 17 years seen between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2016, with 1 of 5 primary diagnoses. For each LEP encounter, we randomly selected 3 English-speaking encounters within the same PUCC and diagnosis class. We compared overall LOS between LEP and English-speaking encounters. Of our entire sample, 184 (1.03%) were LEP encounters, of which 145 (78.8%) preferred Spanish. Comparing the LEP visits to 552 matched English-speaking visits, we found a significant difference in average LOS (LEP 85.5 minutes; English-speaking 76.4 minutes) and in prescriptions provided (

Journal Title

Clinical pediatrics

Volume

59

Issue

4-5

First Page

421

Last Page

428

Keywords

interpreter; limited English proficiency; pediatrics; urgent care

Recommended Citation

Patel AT, Lee BR, Donegan R, Humiston SG. Length of Stay for Patients With Limited English Proficiency in Pediatric Urgent Care. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2020;59(4-5):421-428. doi:10.1177/0009922820902439