Language Concordant Home Care Visits Reduce 30 Day Readmissions in Limited English Proficiency Patients

Research Objective: To differentiate the effects on 30 day readmission risk of having a language concordant vs. a non-language concordant registered nurse conduct home health care visits for limited English proficiency patients who spoke Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Cantonese, or Korean. Study Design: A secondary analysis of electronic patient record data from 2010-2014 collected from an urban home health care agency serving a significant limited English proficiency population. Patient records were matched using propensity scoring methods and inverse probability weighting to control for comorbidities. To examine the effects of language concordant registered nurse visits, human resources records were matched with patient visit data to determine the frequency, length, and other visit factors on patient risk for 30 day readmission. Kruskal-Wallis tests determined between language group differences for continuity of care in home care visits (e.g. the same nurse visiting the patient each time). Population Studied: 143,805 patients formed the dataset with 34,124 matched English speaking and non-English preferred patients resulting in the sample for the analysis. Principal Findings: Patient's language preference affected the continuity of care with Russian, Mandarin, and Cantonese speakers having higher rates of continuity of care than English or Spanish speakers (p