Quality improvement initiative looks at solving communication challenges between Chinese-speaking patients and clinicians
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, patients with limited English proficiency account for up to 20% of 155 million emergency department (ED) visits annually. Although federal law requires federally funded health care organizations to provide interpreter services, fewer than 70% of U.S hospitals offer these resources. Chinese speaking patients face unique challenges in navigating the U.S. health care system particularly due to the limited availability of services and tools that accommodate the diversity of Chinese dialects. Without these ED language resources, Chinese speaking patients may experience high rates of diagnostic testing, high admission rates, more unplanned ED revisits, and poor health outcomes.
To address this gap, PhD candidate Jiaojiao Wright led a quality improvement initiative, with assistant professor Meghan Reading Turchioe, PhD '18, to evaluate the use of communication cards in the emergency department to help bridge language barriers between Chinese-speaking patients and clinicians. The Columbia University School of Nursing-led initiative, “Communication Cards for Chinese-speaking Patients in the Emergency Department: Patient and Clinician Experiences,” was published in the Journal of Emergency Medicine on August 4, 2026.
The communication cards feature common phrases used by patients and clinicians in English and Chinese, including simple requests and hospital addresses to help loved ones locate the hospital. The cards, available in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Fujianese, were presented to Chinese-speaking patients, and English-speaking clinicians were trained to use them. In surveys of each group, patients and clinicians reported that the cards helped them communicate more effectively. Wright and her team plan to develop communications cards in other languages assisted by audio. They also will train hospital volunteers, maximizing the cards’ impact.
"Reception of the cards was mostly positive. They provide an additional quick and easy way for Chinese-speaking patients, especially those who are older and not tech-savy, to express their needs and requests to the health care team. Current hospital policies permit only in-person or remote human interpreters to minimize privacy risks and reduce the potential for mistranslations. What we developed acts as a quick solution in solving communication challenges when an interpreter is not immediately present or accessible,” says Wright.
“There are plans to rollout additional cards with audio through a website, which we’re excited about. If a patient clicks on an image card such as blanket, audio will be provided in the patient’s preferred language and English so that the patient and clinician are on the same page. It’s a work in progress but a step in the right direction to reduce communication barriers.”
Funding was provided by a NewYork-Presybertarian Patient Experience grant. View the communications cards within the full paper.