Language of Workers’ Compensation Part 3: How to Better Support Your Non-English Speaking Injured Employees
According to the U.S. census, 22% of the U.S. population—roughly 68 million people—speak a language other than English at home.
In Part Three of our Language of Workers’ Compensation series, we outline the leading challenges non-English speaking employees face when they get hurt on the job and how, as an employer, it’s critical that you put proactive practices in place to better support their recovery.
Top Five Challenges
When a non-English speaking employee gets hurt on the job and needs medical care, he or she is forced to navigate the medical process in a foreign language or rely on translation services.
Without a full understanding of their diagnosis and projected treatment, these employees face five critical challenges:
They’re unable to make fully informed and empowered decisions about their treatment options. When employees don’t speak the language, they’re less likely to ask important questions or share concerns about their treatment. This leaves them feeling frustrated, disempowered, isolated and overwhelmed.
Because employees are often seen by different providers with different specialties, it becomes an increasingly confusing process that leads to misdiagnosis, inappropriate and/or unnecessary treatments and a lengthy healing process.
They’re unable to communicate their medical history or fully understand medication options. When working with only English-speaking providers, non-English speaking employees struggle to communicate their medical history, including allergies, current medications and more. Nor are they able to get a full grasp of the new medications they’re receiving—including dosage, side effects and treatment periods. This creates a dangerous environment for both the employee and you as their employer. Here at Viscardi, we utilize our database of providers to offer injured workers providers who speak their language or, when an insurance policy indicates a PPO, working within that PPO to best assist injured workers getting the care they need in the language they speak. Sometimes state jurisdictions do not permit directing care, in which case the injured worker is given access to the state’s database to find a provider who speaks their language.
Treatment is often delayed due to the wrong insurance provided at the beginning of treatment. Workers’ compensation processes are, more often than not, complex. When employees are unable to provide accurate information about their insurance coverage from the get-go, the process often ends up getting tedious and unnecessarily delayed.
When English-speaking family members translate on the injured employee’s behalf, it creates a conflict of interest. When acting as a translation service for their injured family member, relatives often filter what is being shared. This leaves the injured employee, once again, unable to make fully informed and empowered decisions about their own treatment options. We’ve also seen providers and family members leave the injured employee out of the conversation entirely, further disempowering and distancing them from their own treatment process.
Many non-English employees return to work too quickly. Non-English speaking employees often fear losing their job when they get injured. Without an advocate who speaks their language, many feel forced to return to work before they’re fully capable of performing job duties. This creates an unhealthy environment for the employee, cuts down on productivity for employers and increases the risk of re-injury.
How to Better Support Your Non-English Speaking Injured Employees
The challenges non-English speaking employees face are complex, with effects that ripple across the injured employee’s life and the organization. The good news? There’s an easy solution to better support them: work with a bilingual nurse case management firm.
Bilingual nurse case management firms are able to help employers eradicate 100% of the challenges listed above. As advocates for the injured employees, they’re able to discuss, in-depth, the injured employee’s medical history, medications and treatment options as well as answer questions and address concerns. They’re able to relay critical insurance and process-related information, ensuring injured employees are able to provide the correct information right out of the gate. They’re able to help injured employees understand what to expect throughout the treatment process and gauge their own recovery so they don’t go back to work before they’re ready—putting themselves, their colleagues and the organization at risk. Most importantly, bilingual nurse case managers are able to build trust with the injured employee, expediting their recovery process and getting them back to work feeling healthy and ready to jump back in.
An employee here at Viscardi has non-English speaking family members. When her aunt was injured on the job, our colleague shared, “My aunt felt the most comfortable when she had a bilingual speaking nurse because she was able to communicate all her concerns and needs to the nurse. The nurse was able to inform her of all the tests, blood work, medications, and therapies she had scheduled for the day or as they were being performed. Having a bilingual nurse made a great impact on her recovery during those days. On days in which she did not have the bilingual nurse she was more confused and would ask me or one of my siblings for a daily update of her status of what was going on.”
Every worker, either documented or not, should have an advocate that speaks their language and can confidently help them navigate the workers’ comp process. When they do, the employee—and the organization—thrives.
And in case you’re wondering: si, somos bilingües.