Population Health Promotion and Cultural Competence

Running head: POPULATION HEALTH PROMOTION AND CULTURAL COMPETENCE
POPULATION HEALTH PROMOTION AND CULTURAL COMPETENCE
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1POPULATION HEALTH PROMOTION AND CULTURAL COMPETENCE
Introduction
The following paper will briefly discuss on the key issues, strengths, limitations and
scope of improvement, in terms of the health promotional and clinical services provided by the
Montefiore Medical Center.
Discussion
Patient Engagement Activities and Communication Strategies
Upon close examination of the ‘Interpreting Services Program’ (ISP) document, it can be
observed that the Montefiore Medical Center (MMC) provides a range of interpreter and
bilingual services for both linguistically diverse patients as well as for those with auditory or oral
challenges (Chase, 2010).
Recommendations: However, it can be observed that only Spanish interpreter services
are available. While the availability of a printed picture resource on key hospital services - such
as the one available at the MMC – can assist in management of languages not available, the
inclusion of diverse language services other than Spanish are recommended. Recruitment of
linguistically diverse health professionals or interpreters, after identifying the range on linguistic
diversities prevalent in the Bronx’s demographic data, can prove to be useful. Another key
limitation as per the ISP document is the specification that interpreter services at the MMC are to
be limited only during communicating medication or diagnostic information to patients.
However, optimum patient centered approaches are largely dependent on frequent patient
engagement and therapeutic communication. Thus the ISP document must mention the need to
use an interpreter for all incidences of patient communication and not just only for medication or
diagnosis (Karliner, Pérez-Stable & Gregorich, 2017).

2POPULATION HEALTH PROMOTION AND CULTURAL COMPETENCE
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Management Strategies
The MMC’s attempt to deliver healthy living based programs can be evidenced in its
diabetic care services, which comprises of collaboration with local farmer’s market and
availability recreational memberships across local parks. Considering the positive association
between poor food selection, inadequate availability of physical activity services and increased
prevalence of diabetes across socially disadvantaged groups, such healthy living strategies by the
MMC can be considered as effective. To further ensure effective nutritional health promotion
and chronic disease management facilities via the non-programmatic services, the MMC
provides cooking demonstrations as well as in-home services such as telehealth based assessment
notifications and letters to hyperglycemic patients on the need for diabetic health management.
Additionally, for the purpose of delivering optimum child health services, the MMC has also
collaborated with schools for the availability of low fat milk (Chase, 2010).
Recommendations: Such strategies can be considered as effective since these effectively
target social health determinants of inadequate accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
and their impact on high prevalence of obesity across the population. However, lack of
education, especially among socially disadvantaged groups targeted by the MMC, is a key social
determinant associated with obesity prevalence. Thus, the availability of child centered based
education resources or demonstrations would have been proven to be a useful additional in the
MMC’s health promotion strategies (del Río et al., 2019).
Financial Incentives and Quality Improvement Processes
Some of the key patient centered approaches which have been incorporated by the MMC
is the availability of multilingual interpreter and disability as well as the development of

3POPULATION HEALTH PROMOTION AND CULTURAL COMPETENCE
culturally diverse resources coupled with enhancing its working hours for addressing patient
complaints and long waiting lists (Chase, 2010).
Recommendations: Patient centered care is largely focused on a healthcare
organization’s efforts to address patient complaints, cultural needs as well as individualized
health concerns. While the MMC adheres to all of these, the lack of provisions for obtaining
feedback from patients can be considered as a key limitation in terms of the organization’s
patient centered services. Thus, to improve upon the same, it is recommended that the MMC
provides a scope for patients to share their complaints and feedback followed by prioritization of
the same as a part of organizational quality auditing services (Jarrar et al., 2019).
Conclusion
Thus, to conclude, despite the comprehensiveness of services and resources provided by
the MMC, certain limitations were still of concern. In conclusion, the incorporation of additional
multilingual interpreters and staff as well as provisions of patient feedback and child centered
obesity educational resources can prove to be beneficial improvements.

4POPULATION HEALTH PROMOTION AND CULTURAL COMPETENCE
References
Chase, D. (2010). Montefiore Medical Center: Integrated care delivery for vulnerable
populations. New York, NY: The Commonwealth Fund.
del Río, N. G., González-González, C. S., Martín-González, R., Navarro-Adelantado, V.,
Toledo-Delgado, P., & García-Peñalvo, F. (2019). Effects of a gamified educational
program in the nutrition of children with obesity. Journal of medical systems, 43(7), 198.
Jarrar, M. T., Minai, M. S., Al‐Bsheish, M., Meri, A., & Jaber, M. (2019). Hospital nurse shift
length, patient‐centered care, and the perceived quality and patient safety. The
International journal of health planning and management, 34(1), e387-e396.
Karliner, L. S., Pérez-Stable, E. J., & Gregorich, S. E. (2017). Convenient access to professional
interpreters in the hospital decreases readmission rates and estimated hospital
expenditures for patients with limited English proficiency. Medical care, 55(3), 199.