This article is an examination of the impacts of language barriers, specifically barriers for Spanish-speakers, on patient’s and provider’s healthcare experiences. As the influence of cultural competency grows within the sphere of medicine, linguistic needs continue to be unsatisfied. This article explores the extent that language affects access to healthcare, health outcomes, patient satisfaction, and quality of care via the overarching themes of language-preference, language-concordance of physician and patient, and interpretation services. Consideration of the published studies demonstrate that preference and use of Spanish limit access to medical care and worsen health outcomes. This is accompanied by the findings that language-concordance and professional medical interpreters improve quality of care and patient satisfaction. Additionally, this article explores next steps for deepening research and implementing findings to accommodate linguistic needs, including standardizing interpreter training, informing patients about language access policies in their preferred language, and educating providers about interpretation services.

Amy Hoover would like to thank Ness Sandoval for his support on this project and invaluable guidance and mentoring. Dr. Sandoval's thoughtful feedback throughout the semester was critical to this project's development and providing meaningful implications for improving language barriers in healthcare.