Family-Initiated Interpretation in the PICU

Family-Initiated Interpretation: A Novel Approach to Communication in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

The goal of this study is to compare interpreter use rates before and after allowing non-English speaking families to call an interpreter themselves. The main questions it aims to answer are:

Is it feasible for families to call an interpreter themselves? Will allowing families to call an interpreter themselves increase the rate of professional interpreter utilization?

Participants will be given an interpreting tablet and instructed to use the interpreter application whenever they would like to talk to the medical team. There will be a short survey on the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention for the patients and the medical team. The study team will then look at interpreter use rates before and after the intervention.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Limited English Proficiency
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Family Initiated Interpretation

Detailed Description

More than 25 million people in the United States have limited English proficiency. Patients with limited English proficiency face worse clinical outcomes than their English proficient counterparts, like longer length of stays, increased adverse events, and decreased understanding of their child's care. Language barriers may be particularly important in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), where parents encounter challenging medical decisions like choosing to pursue high-risk therapies or making end-of-life decisions.

Professional interpretation has been shown to mitigate negative outcomes for this population. For instance, one study showed decreased mortality in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) for Latino patients after in-person interpreter availability was increased; however, interpreters are still widely underutilized. One study in a PICU revealed that only 53% of doctors and 41% of nurses used an interpreter "often" for their patients who needed it. To improve clinical outcomes for this population, communication with patients with LEP needs to be improved.

Health disparities as a result of limited English proficiency are unjust, and a just medical system would allow patients with LEP to access the same quality of care as their English-proficiency counterparts. One way to improve communication may be to provide families with an opportunity to initiate interpreter use on their own. Although families have expressed a desire for this, no previous studies have examined the effects of this strategy.

Hypothesis:

The study team hypothesizes that implementing a novel family-initiated interpretation system will lead to greater use of interpreters, compared to the current standard of care. The investigators plan to test this hypothesis in the PICU. The specific aims are:

Explore the feasibility, usability, and acceptability of a family-initiated interpreter intervention among healthcare providers, and the acceptability of the intervention among families with limited English proficiency.

Examine the impact of family-initiated interpretation intervention on professional interpreter utilization by comparing pre and post-intervention professional interpreter utilization rates in the PICU.

By allowing families to initiate contact with an interpreter, the study team believe that interpreter utilization will increase, with the potential to decrease disparities in the limited English proficiency population. This work will inform future work to improve care for patients with limited English proficiency, and the investigators plan to investigate the clinical impact of this interpreter modality in future projects.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 120
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Mary Pilarz, MD; Phone Number: 3122274000; Email: mpilarz@luriechildrens.org

Study Locations

• United States
  • Illinois
    • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60611
      • Recruiting
      • Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
      • Contact: Mary Pilarz

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• All patients and families admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) whose family requires an interpreter

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients and families who do not require interpretation

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Sequential Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Pre-Intervention; The medical team will use standard interpreter practices with this group.
Experimental: Interventional; This arm will be given interpreter tablets in order to allow them to call interpreter themselves.	Behavioral: Family Initiated Interpretation; Interpreter tablet will be given to families so they can contact an interpreter themselves.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Interpreter Utilization	Number of interpreter encounters per limited English proficiency patient day	12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
• Collaborators: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Mary Pilarz, MD, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 3, 2023
• Primary Completion (Estimated): March 1, 2024
• Study Completion (Estimated): June 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 22, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 28, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): March 30, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 11, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 9, 2024
• Last Verified: January 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: interpretation; health equity; limited English proficiency
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2022-5221

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No