Barriers to specialty care and specialty referral completion in the community health center setting.

Objective: To assess the frequency of barriers to specialty care and to assess which barriers are associated with an incomplete specialty referral (not attending a specialty visit when referred by a primary care provider) among children seen in community health centers.

Study Design: Two months after their child's specialty referral, 341 parents completed telephone surveys assessing whether a specialty visit was completed and whether they experienced any of 10 barriers to care. Family/community barriers included difficulty leaving work, obtaining childcare, obtaining transportation, and inadequate insurance.

Specialty referral communication and completion in the community health center setting.

Objective: Parent and provider disagreement about children's care at the time of specialty referral may lead to incomplete referral, ie, not attending a specialty visit when referred. This study's objectives were first to assess parent-provider correlation in perspectives on referral necessity, seriousness of child's health problem, and parental understanding of referral among children referred to pediatric specialists, and second to assess whether these perspectives are associated with incomplete referral.

Methods: Two months after specialty referral, parents and primary care providers completed a survey rating referral necessity, seriousness of problem, and parental understanding on a 4-part scale ("definitely yes" to "definitely no").

Patient perspectives of clinical care and patient navigation in follow-up of abnormal mammography.

Background: Racial and ethnic disparities in cancer care and survival are well documented. Patient navigation has been shown to improve timely follow-up of abnormal breast screenings for underserved patients. Few studies showed the impact of navigation on patient experiences of care.

Medical interpreter knowledge of cancer and cancer clinical trials.

Background: Cancer patients with limited English proficiency may need specialized assistance to communicate with health professionals about cancer and clinical trials.

Methods: Medical interpreters working in several Boston-area hospitals were invited to participate in training sessions about cancer and cancer clinical trials. We did a pre and post survey-based assessment of knowledge of basic concepts in cancer and clinical trials, and post assessment of satisfaction, among 97 interpreters in cancer training and education sessions and 79 participants in clinical trial training and education sessions.

Lost in translation: integrating medical interpreters into the multidisciplinary team.

Shortly before his death in 1995, Kenneth B. Schwartz, a cancer patient at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), founded The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center at MGH.