L1A: Screening for preferred spoken language for health care

This measure is used to assess the percent of patient visits and admissions where preferred spoken language for health care is screened and recorded.

Hospitals cannot provide adequate and appropriate language services to their patients if they do not create mechanisms to screen for limited English-proficient patients and record patients´ preferred spoken language for health care. Standard practices of collecting preferred spoken language for health care would assist hospitals in planning for demand. Access to and availability of patient language preference is critical for providers in planning care. This measure provides information on the extent to which patients are asked about the language they prefer to receive care in and the extent to which this information is recorded.