re: Spanish speaking in the United States

"The numbers are vastly different, and the population is coming from a neighbor rather than overseas, and that neighbor happens to have a historical claim to vast portions of US territory."

Mexico has a claim to vast portions of US land??? Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 in Mexico. Mexico has no claim of any kind on US territory nor do they claim to have a claim!

Any worry about too many Mexicans speaking Spanish is off-base, imo. BY the second generation, English will be spoken fluently by the overwhelming majority.

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Mexico has a claim to vast portions of US land??? Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 in Mexico. Mexico has no claim of any kind on US territory nor do they

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Guess you got it all figured out. History is absolutely static. Congratulations.

It is a cultural invasion.

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The patient and taking care of her is not the issue here. I know enough Spanish to ask what I absolutely need to know to take care of her effectively and safely.

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Then what are you bitching about? You yourself said "Our interaction was not optimal". Less then optimal would imply that you really aren't fluent enough to guarantee a patient's safety.

I bet you are a physician or nurse who claimed to be fluent in Spanish when applying to the hospital and now you are worried about being called out as a fake. So in response you lash out at Spanish speaking patients and complain about how many come in without speaking proper English. I mean, if you speak Spanish so fluently, why would you complain about having to use it so much? And then tie that in with some weak complaint about not getting paid by some (presumably Spanish speaking) patients?

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mmcgrath

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Just a quick perspective. Your posts here make it obvious you don't know enough about specifics to be making suggestions, and you certainly don't know enough to be leveling insults.

If you have questions ask them,

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I have asked them, and BB has given specifics, some of which have been edited. Outside of saying he/she is "bitching" about the Spanish speaking patient (who had an English speaking spouse with her) I haven't attacked BB directly with an insult. And that would be an accurate description of what BB is doing, besides challenging everyone else here on whether or not they have had a job requiring them to go above and beyond. Apparently the medical profession is the only one to do that in BB's mind.

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The challenge faced in US medicine is that undocumented immigrants are often keenly aware of social legal loopholes. Many understand nooks and crannies of our system as well or better than lawyers. Sometimes that understanding comes as a detriment.

Take the common example of pregnant "self-pay" (i.e., no pay) illegal immigrants followed by the county healthcare system. It is a level of free medical service for noncitizens offered virtually nowhere else in the world.

When these individuals go into labor, instead of seeking care at the affiliated county facility with access to their docs and their records, they show up at the nicest private facility they can find. Hot tubs, designer coffee, etc. It is illegal for them to be turned away, and referred to the appropriate center. They are meticulously aware of that.

Aside from being burden to the system (expense, lack of language support, etc), the problem is access to records can be limited when folks show up at the wrong facility. Care may be negatively impacted.

In the latter instance, the medical profession is uniquely tasked, under threat of debilitating legal action, to provide top level care to deliberately uncooperative individuals. I'd suppose that is the type of experience BB is reflecting. It is suboptimal, and unnecessarily so.

So, you, like many others throw the term racist around yet you don't know the meaning

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The challenge faced in US medicine is that undocumented immigrants are often keenly aware of social legal loopholes. Many understand nooks and crannies of our system as well or better than lawyers. Sometimes that understanding comes as a detriment.

Take the common example of pregnant "self-pay" (i.e., no pay) illegal immigrants followed by the county healthcare system. It is a level of free medical service for noncitizens offered virtually nowhere else in the world.

When these individuals go into labor, instead of seeking care at the affiliated county facility with access to their docs and their records, they show up at the nicest private facility they can find. Hot tubs, designer coffee, etc. It is illegal for them to be turned away, and referred to the appropriate center. They are meticulously aware of that.

Aside from being burden to the system (expense, lack of language support, etc), the problem is access to records can be limited when folks show up at the wrong facility. Care may be negatively impacted.

In the latter instance, the medical profession is uniquely tasked, under threat of debilitating legal action, to provide top level care to deliberately uncooperative individuals. I'd suppose that is the type of experience BB is reflecting. It is suboptimal, and unnecessarily so.

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I agree with some of the issues you mentioned, but this is kind of getting off track from the OP and what BB was complaining about. In BB's case, he mentioned that the woman had an English speaking husband and was also receiving pre-natal care at another hospital (which wouldn't be offered to uninsured outside of a clinic). Then he went on to make some weird assumption about her having braces assuming she got them in the US when a large number of immigrants actually go back to their home country for dental work and other elective procedures, which you would think a healthcare professional would know.


All of that to back up his position that she didn't speak English because she was lazy or didn't care to.

I think I did hit a nerve when I said he shouldn't try to substitute for an actual interpreter because he is risking a patient's health. It will be uncomfortable testimony in front of a jury if he needs to explain why a surgery costing thousands already utilizing a surgeon, anesthesiologist, 3-4 nurses, and an OR was botched because he thought the cost of a $200 translation service was too much money or too much of a bother.

The one part of your point, that somehow we provide medical service to immigrants in a way that eclipses almost the entire world, I disagree on.

I have no problem at all. Everything in both languages in Ny. Making calls n the phone I hear press 3 Cantonese, press4 Russian Press 5 Portuguese etc etc. Richer country