At Advocate Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn, a 66-year-old man lies flat on a gurney, several sensors wired to his bare chest. He’s about to undergo a stress test
The patient speaks only Spanish. Lisa Norrgran, the cardio-diagnostic technician who will administer the test, speaks only English.
“I need for you to ask him some questions for me,” said Norrgran, addressing Meg Adorno, a bilingual certified medical interpreter. “How much does he weigh?”
Adorno translates and Norrgran makes a notation of the man’s response, then the questions continue. “Does he have high cholesterol?” “Does he smoke?” “Does he have diabetes?”
They proceed through the long list of health-related questions.
In Spanish, Adorno also explains the stress test procedure, which involves an intravenous dose of stimulant. She remains at the man’s side throughout the test, translating requests from the technician for rapid leg lifts and inquiries about how he’s feeling.
With 754 beds, 800 physicians and an 82 percent occupancy rate, Advocate Christ Hospital is second in size only to Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in the Chicago metropolitan area. Its specialty services–cardiology, pediatrics and emergency/trauma services–attracted 327,461 patients in 1999, many from well beyond the borders of Oak Lawn.
“A major challenge in serving such a vast array of patients is overcoming language barriers,” said Sue Clark Reimbold, director of public relations.
Spanish-speaking patients make up the majority of those requiring translation services, but there are many others. As proof of the need, 132 hospital staff members are listed in an interdepartmental directory as volunteer translators of 24 languages. These include Arabic, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian, Thai and Vietnamese; others are Urdu, a language of Pakistan; Tagalog, of the Philippines; and Gujrati and Kannada, of India.
For hearing-impaired patients, the hospital contracts with seven sign-language translators.
Six months ago, Adorno became the hospital’s first full-time, bilingual-certified medical interpreter, having received her certification from Healthcare Interpreting Services, a program at Chicago Health Outreach. She completed a one-day internship at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital, which has an extensive language-translation program for patients. Adorno also obtained a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, and completed a medical-terminology course at Evanston Hospital.
On average, she will meet with 8 eight to 10 Spanish-speaking patients per day.
“This really helps us to develop our relationships with patients and greatly improve the quality of care provided,” said Nancy Mabbott, coordinator of Community Health and Wellness for Hope Children’s Hospital, a 60-bed Advocate Health Care facility that operates on the same hospital campus and shares many services.
Adorno, who was born in Puerto Rico, has had to adjust to Mexican Spanish.
“Some Puerto Rican words are bad words in Mexican culture, so you have to be careful in translating,” she explained. “For example, `bobby pin’ in Puerto Rican Spanish means `vagina’ to people from Mexico.”
She added, “It’s not just a matter of language, but culture as well.”
She and Mabbott also visited a local mosque to become familiar with the customs of patients who speak Arabic.
“From this we found out many things, but for one we learned that the women like to see female doctors,” Adorno said.
Adorno also is developing release forms that will be written in Arabic, Greek, Polish and Spanish. She is overseeing translations of a pain scale into these foreign languages. (A pain scale helps patients express levels of discomfort, which assists doctors in determining treatments.) And she is coordinating the use of language software among departments.
Improving service to non-English-speaking patients is just one of the developments at Advocate Christ Hospital. Others include:
– In 1999, cardiovascular services led the Chicago area in number of patients served: 1,302 open-heart surgeries on adults and 440 on children. The hospital also began offering the only hospital-based enhanced external counter pulsation program for treating severe angina by stimulating the body to grow bypass blood vessels. The treatment allows blood to nourish the heart, reducing chest pain and the need for medication.
– The Baby Advocate program was created to ensure the vaccination of children born at the hospital or treated by Advocate physicians. One month after the child is born, parents will receive immunization and health-reminder letters, a newsletter and invitations to parenting classes.
– A $30 million imaging lab opened late last month, upgrading the radiology services. It includes several new pieces of high-tech imaging equipment, plus the Picture Archiving and Communication System, a filmless image storage system that can be read and accessed by computer. “Not a lot of other hospitals have this yet,” Reimbold said. “It will offer several advantages. The faster results, due to no film processing, will mean shorter wait times, and we expect that appointments will move along more rapidly.”
With 302 beds, Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park is smaller than Advocate Christ Hospital, but “as a community hospital it takes its role very seriously,” said Denise Stillman, public relations manager.
Sister Margaret Christina Hoban, vice president of community services, holds regular meetings with local school officials, village fire and police employees, business representatives and residents to develop strategies aimed at improving community health. The 22-member group, which meets in the basement of the Evergreen Park Police Department, is called the Healthier Evergreen Committee.
At the September meeting, a police officer reported on a coming event to acquaint high school students with what it’s like to drive while intoxicated. Vision-impairing goggles will be worn by kids driving golf carts. A school superintendent shared a plan to equip the local high school with cardiovascular diagnostic equipment and extracurricular fitness programs. A medical doctor explained his campaign to educate the elderly about the importance of low-impact fitness activities.
The next Healthier Evergreen meeting is scheduled for Nov. 28; members will report on the progress of their plans.
“The committee accomplishes a lot,” said Phil Rizzo, a police officer and committee member. “Sister Hoban has been very instrumental in holding the group together.”
Little Company of Mary facilities offer illness-prevention classes and diagnostic workshops to resident at the hospital and at its health-education centers in Evergreen Plaza and Chicago Ridge Mall.
The hospital has grown and changed considerably since its founding by the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary in 1930. On June 17, 1950, the first living organ transplant in the world took place here. Dorothy Tucker, who at the time was 49, lived five years after receiving a kidney.
Organ transplants are no longer performed at the hospital, but there are some specialties more likely to be found in larger medical centers, such as a sleep-disorder clinic and a comprehensive wound-healing center where patients are placed in hyperbaric chambers containing 100 percent oxygen.
In recent years, Little Company of Mary has conducted comprehensive health surveys of the Evergreen Park community, discovering that coronary heart disease, stroke, back injuries and cancer are leading causes of hospital admission.
Responding to a need for cancer therapies, the hospital is constructing a 33,000-square-foot cancer treatment center, which is slated for completion by Thanksgiving. In addition to conventional cancer treatments, the center will feature a spa with therapies such as hypnosis, massage and aroma, plus consultation on prostheses, skin care and make-up enhancement.
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For more information on Advocate Christ Hospital and Medical Center, call 708-425-8000. For more information on Little Company of Mary Hospital, call 708-422-6200.