Deborah Parra-Medina, PhD

Phone: 803.251.6317
E-mail: dpmedina@gwm.sc.edu

University of South Carolina

Completed Projects

How Rural Hospitals Are Meeting the Needs of Low-English Proficiency Patients, Lead researcher
Research center: South Carolina Rural Health Research Center
Funder: Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP)
Topics: Cultural competency, Hispanics, Legislation and regulation, Minority health
This study will determine the extent to which rural hospitals have implemented plans for compliance with the DHHS Low-English Proficiency regulations, describe the difficulties rural hospitals must overcome in order to provide health care to Hispanic clients, ascertain the translation techniques most commonly used by rural hospitals, and describe the most effective approaches in the provision of culturally competent health care to Hispanic clients.

Publications

• Rural Hospitals and Spanish Speaking Patients with Limited English Proficiency
  Author(s): Myriam E. Torres, Deborah Parra-Medina, Amy Brock Martin, Andrew O. Johnson, Jessica D. Bellinger, Janice C. Probst
  Research center: South Carolina Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Cultural competency, Hispanics
  Date: 10 / 2005
  This is the executive summary. Reports that 40 million Latinos in the United States, 14.2% of the population, have limited English proficiency (LEP), which can lead to poor health outcomes in the absence of effective medical interpretation or translation services. Executive summary available online.