The Boston Globe examines cultural and language barriers prevent effective doctor-patient communication

“Such cultural misunderstandings and language barriers are quite common between American doctors and their foreign-born patients, causing a host of problems from discrimination and confusion to major medical errors and death. Language barriers and cultural misunderstandings are the main reason, after finances, that immigrants get fewer and poorer quality medical services than US-born English speakers.

Miscommunication can also drive up the cost of care for everyone, said Dr. Michael Grodin, a psychiatrist at Boston Medical Center and director of the hospital’s refugee center.

”Ninety percent of medicine is history, the rest is exams and tests,’ he said. ‘If you don’t understand the language and can’t get a history, you have to order more tests and get more treatments. You save money when you can communicate.'”