(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Some Spanish-speaking patients at Northwestern Medicine will no longer need to rely on translators to talk to their doctors.
The Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute Hispanic Program aims to break down the language barrier by pairing Spanish-speaking patients with Spanish-speaking physicians.
Dr. Diego Avella leads the program. He says their goal is to help patients feel comfortable to talk about their health.
“Not only the diagnosis, not only the treatments, but also what they expect in the long term and shortly after surgery, which is a difficult conversation for the patients to have when they don’t speak English proficiently,” Avella said.
He adds for some patients, just knowing they can talk directly to a doctor in their native language is enough to get them to tackle their health issues.
“We think that patients are going to seek earlier care, are going to be more compliant with the recommendations and in the long term this will improve the outcomes.”
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