Dataset Information

Patient-physician language concordance and quality and safety outcomes among frail home care recipients admitted to hospital in Ontario, Canada.

ABSTRACT:

Background

When patients and physicians speak the same language, it may improve the quality and safety of care delivered. We sought to determine whether patient-physician language concordance is associated with in-hospital and postdischarge outcomes among home care recipients who were admitted to hospital.

Methods

We conducted a population-based study of a retrospective cohort of 189 690 home care recipients who were admitted to hospital in Ontario, Canada, between 2010 and 2018. We defined patient language (obtained from home care assessments) as English (Anglophone), French (Francophone) or other (allophone). We obtained physician language from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. We defined hospital admissions as language concordant when patients received more than 50% of their care from physicians who spoke the patients' primary language. We identified in-hospital (adverse events, length of stay, death) and post-discharge outcomes (emergency department visits, readmissions, death within 30 days of discharge). We used regression analyses to estimate the adjusted rate of mean and the adjusted odds ratio (OR) of each outcome, stratified by patient language, to assess the impact of language-concordant care within each linguistic group.

Results

Allophone patients who received language-concordant care had lower risk of adverse events (adjusted OR 0.25, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.15-0.43) and in-hospital death (adjusted OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.29-0.66), as well as shorter stays in hospital (adjusted rate of mean 0.74, 95% CI 0.66-0.83) than allophone patients who received language-discordant care. Results were similar for Francophone patients, although the magnitude of the effect was smaller than for allophone patients. Language concordance or discordance of the hospital admission was not associated with significant differences in postdischarge outcomes.

Interpretation

Patients who received most of their care from physicians who spoke the patients' primary language had better in-hospital outcomes, suggesting that disparities across linguistic groups could be mitigated by providing patients with language-concordant care.

SUBMITTER: Seale E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9328476 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Patient-physician language concordance and quality and safety outcomes among frail home care recipients admitted to hospital in Ontario, Canada.

Seale Emily E Reaume Michael M Batista Ricardo R Eddeen Anan Bader AB Roberts Rhiannon R Rhodes Emily E McIsaac Daniel I DI Kendall Claire E CE Sood Manish M MM Prud'homme Denis D Tanuseputro Peter P

CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne 20220701 26

<h4>Background</h4>When patients and physicians speak the same language, it may improve the quality and safety of care delivered. We sought to determine whether patient-physician language concordance is associated with in-hospital and postdischarge outcomes among home care recipients who were admitted to hospital.<h4>Methods</h4>We conducted a population-based study of a retrospective cohort of 189 690 home care recipients who were admitted to hospital in Ontario, Canada, between 2010 and 2018. ...[more]

PMID: 35817434

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Project description:ImportanceMen and women should earn equal pay for equal work. An examination of the magnitude of pay disparities could inform strategies for remediation.ObjectiveTo examine gender-based differences in pay within a large, comprehensive physician population practicing within a variety of payment systems.Design, setting, and participantsThis cross-sectional study used data from the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) in the 2017 to 2018 fiscal year to estimate differences in gross payments between men and women physicians in Ontario, Canada. Pay gaps were calculated annually and daily. Regression analyses were used to control for observable practice characteristics that could account for individual differences in daily pay. In Canada's largest province, Ontario, medical services are predominantly provided by self-employed physicians who bill the province's single payer, OHIP. All physicians who submitted claims to OHIP were included. Data were analyzed from January 2020 to July 2021.ExposuresPhysician gender, obtained from the OHIP Corporate Provider Database. Gender is recorded as male or female.Main outcomes and measuresGross clinical payments were tabulated for individual physicians on a daily and annual basis in conjunction with each physician's practice characteristics, setting, and specialty.ResultsA total of 31 481 physicians were included in the study sample (12 604 [40.0%] women; 18 877 [60.0%] men; mean [SD] time since graduation, 23.3 [13.6] years), representing 99% of active physicians in Ontario. The unadjusted differences in clinical payments between male and female physicians were 32.8% (95% CI, 30.8%-34.6%) annually and 22.5% (95% CI, 21.2%-23.8%) daily. After accounting for practice characteristics, region, and specialty, the overall daily payment gap was 13.5% (95% CI, 12.3%-14.8%). The pay gap persisted with differing magnitudes when examined by specialty (ranging from 6.6% to 37.6%), practice setting (8.3% to 17.2%), payment model (13.4% to 22.8% for family medicine; 8.0% to 11.6% for other specialties), and rurality (8.0% to 16.5%).Conclusions and relevanceThis cross-sectional study examined differences in magnitude of annual and daily payment gaps and between unadjusted and adjusted gaps. Comparing the gaps for different specialties, geography, and payment systems illustrated the complexity of the issue by showing that the pay gap varied for physicians in different practice settings. As such, multiple directed interventions will be necessary to ensure that all physicians are paid equally for equal work, regardless of gender.

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Dataset Information

Patient-physician language concordance and quality and safety outcomes among frail home care recipients admitted to hospital in Ontario, Canada.

Background

Methods

Results

Interpretation

Publications

Patient-physician language concordance and quality and safety outcomes among frail home care recipients admitted to hospital in Ontario, Canada.

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