Impact of Language Barrier on Quality of the Health Care and Patient Satisfaction at Family Medicine Clinics, King Faisal Specialist Hospital

Background and objectives:The language barrier in the healthcare setting poses many challenges in terms of achieving a high level of satisfaction among patients and healthcare professionals.Moreover, it can lead to miscommunication between medical professionals and patients, making the delivery of high-quality healthcare extremely challenging.Many known healthcare institutions offer interpreter services to overcome these problems and to improve patient satisfaction, and communication, as well as access to health care.However, these services can increase the cost and duration of treatments, indirectly.This study aims to assess the language barrier in primary healthcare settings and measure patient satisfaction with their primary care physicians (PCP).Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using the GMC's (general medical council) Counsel's patient questionnaire as an assessment tool.The study population included adult patients attending the primary and urgent care outpatient clinic at a tertiary hospital.Data was collected through June and July of 2022.Statistical analyses will be performed through SPSS and Tables edited by Microsoft Excel 97.Results: This study included a total of 425 participants, of which 85.2% were Saudi and 14.8% were non-Saudis.39.3% spoke both Arabic and English, whereas 46.8% were Arabic speakers only and, 13.9% spoke English exclusively.Only 10% reported the presence of a language barrier and their satisfaction mean was 80.9, and out of them, only 1.9% had no access to an interpreter or a translator forming an actual barrier of which they had a satisfaction mean of 76.6.We found that the satisfaction percentage was higher among older patients and Females.And patients reported that longer visit duration could improve their overall satisfaction.Conclusion: language barrier demonstrates a challenge in healthcare and patient communication.An interpreter service can greatly improve patient satisfaction and the overall quality of care provided.and as such higher levels of satisfaction can be achieved even among institutions with diverse patient populations.