Healthcare is undergoing a critical shift: language access is no longer viewed as a matter of convenience or patient experience—it is now formally recognized as a patient safety issue by The Joint Commission.
While this shift is being codified in new requirements taking effect in 2026, the human impact of language barriers has been clear for much longer. A qualitative study published in BMJ Open in 2023 offers a powerful window into why this change matters—not just for patients, but for clinicians themselves.
Based on in-depth interviews with healthcare professionals working across language barriers, the study reveals how communication gaps affect provider confidence, care quality, and patient safety long before regulators incorporate these issues into policy.
👉 Read the full study
The study is based on qualitative interviews with 14 non-Arabic-speaking healthcare professionals, including physicians, nurses, and allied staff, working in healthcare settings in the UAE. In these environments, expatriate clinicians often care for Arabic-speaking patients, making language discordance a routine aspect of their clinical work.
As healthcare organizations prepare for new requirements that explicitly tie language access to patient safety, this research provides critical context: language barriers don’t just affect patient understanding—they reshape clinician behavior, increase stress, and introduce systemic risk into care delivery.
In many ways, the study documents the real-world consequences of treating language access as optional—exactly the gap current regulations are now designed to close.
Clinicians consistently described feeling isolated and unsupported when they were unable to communicate directly with patients. Without shared language or professional interpretation, communication felt incomplete and emotionally distant. Providers reported anxiety about missing critical information and frustration with their inability to connect in meaningful ways.
This matters because provider stress isn’t just a morale issue—it affects decision-making, workflow, and the risk of long-term burnout, particularly in high-pressure clinical settings.
In the absence of professional interpreters, clinicians often relied on informal solutions such as family members translating, gestures, or simplified and memorized phrases. While well-intentioned, these approaches were widely described as inconsistent and unreliable.
The study found that attempts to bridge communication gaps without formal language support were often ineffective, leaving clinicians uncertain about what patients truly understood—or were trying to communicate.
These workarounds increase the risk of incomplete medical histories, misunderstood symptoms, and errors in consent or treatment instructions.
A central theme of the research is that language barriers introduce real safety concerns. Clinicians expressed fear and guilt about missing key clinical details, misinterpreting patient concerns, or delivering care that they felt was suboptimal.
—echoing broader research showing that communication failures are a leading contributor to adverse events in healthcare. In short, when communication breaks down, risk goes up.
Even highly skilled and compassionate clinicians felt language barriers limited their ability to provide patient-centered care. Providers reported shortening or oversimplifying conversations, reduced patient engagement, and lower confidence in shared decision-making.
The researchers are unambiguous: language access should not be optional, improvised, or treated as an administrative afterthought. When clinicians lack reliable language support, they are forced into workarounds that increase risk, strain provider confidence, and compromise care quality.
The study frames professional interpretation not as a convenience, but as a core foundation—on par with other systems designed to protect patient safety and clinical effectiveness. Without it, even highly capable providers are left navigating uncertainty, second-guessing decisions, and delivering care they know could be better.
Language access, the study concludes, is not a courtesy. It is a structural requirement for safe, humane, high-quality healthcare.
The Joint Commission’s newest report on National Performance GoalsTM for the Hospital Program (effective January 2026) shifts language access into a formal patient safety requirement, not just a quality initiative. And, as healthcare becomes more global, more mobile, and more linguistically diverse, language access is no longer a future challenge—it’s a present-day reality. This study adds critical human context to what many clinicians already know firsthand: when patients and providers don’t share a language, the strain doesn’t fall on one side alone. Language barriers don’t just slow care down—they quietly reshape it, often in ways healthcare organizations would never choose intentionally.
At Jeenie, we’re deeply invested in the role qualified language support plays in healthcare. When communication breaks down, patients aren’t the only ones impacted. Clinicians carry the weight too: the stress, the uncertainty, and the fear of making a mistake.
Professional interpreters, used consistently and thoughtfully, help restore clarity, confidence, and connection where it matters most. This study doesn’t just validate that belief—it reinforces that reliable language support is one of the most practical ways healthcare organizations can protect both patient safety and provider wellbeing.
Clear communication isn’t a “nice to have.”
It’s how care works.