Imagine being in a foreign country where nobody speaks your language.
You have an accident and need to be hospitalized. You’ll need to spend your recovery time in this foreign country. You’ll be there for several months.
You’re unable to communicate with those overseeing your care and recovery. There are many critical things they don’t know about you like your previous medical history or what allergies you might have, and you’re helpless to try to communicate with them.
This imaginary scenario can feel overwhelming, but for a patient at Tiburon Hills Care Center, this was a reality.
Stephan is a resident of Marin, but his mother lives in France and only speaks French. She was visiting Stephan in Marin when she fell and needed to be hospitalized. “After surgery at Marin General, she came to Tiburon Hills for a short rehab stay with PT,” Stephan said.
Fortunately for Stephan and his mother, seven different languages are spoken by the staff at Tiburon Hills Care Center, including English, Russian, Spanish, Italian, German, Creole, and, most importantly, French. Instead of feeling isolated, uninformed, and excluded from the details of her own recovery journey, she was able to be cared for in her native language, even though she was over 5,500 miles from home.
Communication is Key
Communication is critical in maintaining relationships, solving problems, and influencing growth. The ability to communicate is not simply nice to have but is absolutely necessary for growth and improvement.
While in short or long-term care, effective communication between the patient and the doctor/caretaker is absolutely essential to the progress of the patient. This extends beyond simply speaking the same language; it also requires the staff to be able to meaningfully communicate the purpose of the different treatments, the measured progress of the patient, and instruct the patient of the concepts behind the methodology used, which ensures that the patient is able to continue with successful recovery after leaving.
Removing Barriers to Recovery
When it comes to healthcare, there are many considerations to be made, and often many things to be worried about. Speaking the same language shouldn’t be one of them. When communication is able to flow, the other concerns and questions are able to be solved quickly and efficiently.
At Tiburon Hills Care Center, overcoming language barriers sets us apart and allows patients to focus on their care, not on their understanding.
Stephan and his mother were the direct benefits of the multilingual staff at Tiburon Hills, ensuring comfort, safety, and a speedy recovery. Stephan concluded, “The therapists were able to get her going and motivated in her native language—she progressed quickly. I don’t believe she would have been able to accomplish her recovery anywhere else. We thank the PT team and nurses for the good work while conquering the language barrier.”
At Tiburon Hills Care Center, we are dedicated to finding and eliminating barriers that stand between our patients and the independence that they are working towards. We are ultimately committed to the well-being of our patients, which means helping patients like Stephan’s mother see results, making them as comfortable as possible, and working with them side-by-side to be as healthy as they can be.