Inclusive Procedures…Huge Impact

In March 2011, Tufts Medical Center, a member of the AF4Q initiative in Greater Boston, added a new field to the patient registration screen to record the patient’s preferred written language for health care information. All registration and admitting staff have been trained in collecting this new field and will begin asking patients on April 4, 2011. Since patients do not always speak and read the same language, Tufts Medical Center added this question to better meet their patients language needs—as it is often the simple steps that make a huge difference in providing quality patient care.