Qualitative Research Examining the Implementation of the Medical Interpreter Pilot Project, California Department of Health Care Services
Hector Rodriguez, Professor
Public Health
Closed. This professor is continuing with Fall 2023 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Spring 2024.
Quality of care disparities between patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) and patients proficient in English have been well documented. Language barriers between patients and providers can lead to medical errors, poor chronic condition management, and undue difficulty accessing care. LEP status is highly correlated with other risk factors for low quality of care, including being uninsured, low income, having lower educational attainment, and being born outside of the U.S.. In California, an estimated 7 million people speak English “less than very well”, making professional medical interpretation a key resource for addressing quality of care disparities.
Community health centers (CHCs) care for underserved populations, including a substantial share of LEP patients; however, these organizations frequently do not have the financial resources or staffing bandwidth to hire dedicated medical interpreters. CHCs also face operational challenges when accessing external language vendors to provide interpretation for languages of lesser diffusion (languages that represent <5% of the service population).
The Medical Interpreter Pilot Project (MIPP), initiated by Assembly Bill 635 (Atkins, Chapter 600, Statutes of 2016), was implemented by the Department of Healthcare California in 2022 to provide rapid access to culturally competent professional medical interpreters for Medi-Cal beneficiaries with LEP through dedicated contractual arrangements with private language service vendors. The UC Berkeley Center of Healthcare Organizational and Innovation Research (CHOIR) is conducting an independent impact evaluation of MIPP and the URAP student will help the research team advance the qualitative component of the evaluation, which will be used to inform implementation strategies and recommendations for future implementation of initiatives like MIPP.
Role: Responsibilities of the student include:
● Conduct an updated literature review focused on research studies examining quality of care for LEP patients and manage research study references using Zotero.
● Transcript cleaning, coding and qualitative analyses of interview data using NVIVO software.
● Table construction and reference management for the planned manuscripts. Co-authorship opportunities are available.
Qualifications: Qualifications:
● Interest in healthcare organizational efforts to provide culturally competent care to LEP populations
● Strong writing skills
● Experience with reference management.
● Experience or interest in coding interview data
● Experience or interest in analyzing interview data using qualitative analysis software (e.g., Nvivo, Atlas.ti, Dedoose, etc.).
● Strong communication skills and intellectual curiosity are preferred.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Jacob Chen, MPH, Staff Researcher
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Off-Campus Research Site: Hybrid work
Related website: https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/provgovpart/Pages/dhcsab635med.aspx
Related website: https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/provgovpart/Pages/dhcsab635med.aspx