Local Voices on Health Care Communication Issues and Insights on Latino Cultural Constructs

Structural issues in the health care delivery system can disproportionately affect language minority patients who require interpretation services. This qualitative study addresses the issues Spanish-speaking Latinos face in obtaining health care by examining the experiences of 25 Spanish speakers in California’s Central Valley, a medically underserved area. The following barriers to communication emerged in the findings: time-restricted interactions, unfriendly encounters, discrimination, issues in interpreting, miscommunication, and opposition to providers. We report participants’ recommendations for improving health care communication, including the need for friendlier and more attentive services, more Spanish-speaking providers, and more time with providers. We argue that these recommendations are in line with Latino cultural constructs: confianza (trust), familismo (family-orientation), personalismo (friendliness), respeto (respect), and simpatía (kindness). This study raises awareness about how language use and intercultural competence affect health care communication by centering the voices of Spanish speakers across numerous contextualized examples.