Hospital Works to Make Native American Patients Feel Comfortable.

To accommodate its Native American patients, who make up about 40% of the patient population, Flagstaff Medical Center offers traditional food and has a traditional healer on staff. The hospital has full-time Navajo interpreters as well as 39 staff members who are back-up interpreters. Instead of giving Native American patients a large packet of information they may not understand or trust, care managers work with the primary care providers on the reservation and ensure they are aware of the hospitalization at the discharge plan. At risk Native American patients who need follow-up receive monitoring devices that use cellphone technology and transmit their data to a telehealth nurse who intervenes when the data are out of normal range.