Spanish-Speaking Patients Have Limited Access Scheduling Outpatient Orthopaedic Appointments Compared With English-Speaking Patients Across the United States.

Purpose: To evaluate whether Spanish-speaking patients can obtain appointments to outpatient orthopaedic surgery clinics across the United States at a similar rate as English-speaking patients and to examine the language interpretation services available at those clinics.

Methods: Orthopaedic offices nationwide were called by a bilingual investigator to request an appointment with a pre-established script. The investigators called in English asking for an appointment for an English-speaking patient (English-English), called in English requesting an appointment for a Spanish-speaking patient (English-Spanish), and called in Spanish asking for an appointment for a Spanish-speaking patient (Spanish-Spanish) in a random order.