New policy leaves some patients on pins and needles.
Southwest Acupuncture College prides itself on its ability to teach students the careful craft of stabbing people in the back. But while relieving suffering through precise pin placement is the literal trade, a more figurative lesson seemed to be in progress when the school announced it would no longer treat non-English-speaking patients.
An internal memo obtained by SFR states that the decision was based on concerns that the college-which has campuses in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Boulder, Colorado-was putting itself
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in a precarious legal position by routing medical and legal information through translators.
"I realize this sounds heartless," Jeffrey Meyer, the clinic's director, wrote in his memo to SAC supervisors, interns and clinic staff, "however, I speak for all involved that our true intent is for the safety of our interns and patients."
The memo-dated April 6-purports that the decision was reached upon consulting with the school's liability insurance attorney after concerns were voiced in a faculty meeting. The attorney's assessment, according to the memo, was "that our concerns were justified and that our liability increased dramatically treating non-English-speaking patients."
Welcome to Covering Your Ass 101, a prerequisite for the sophomore seminar course Damage Control 202.
"I imagine it will be a touchy subject," Meyer tells SFR. "[But] it's not a secret. It's a decision that was made in the interest of providing adequate care."
SAC president Anthony Abbate estimates that the Santa Fe campus-which first opened its doors in 1980-treats roughly 12,000 patients a year, making it one of the busiest acupuncture providers in the region. As a teaching facility, the school offers reduced rates for its services, which would conceivably make SAC an attractive resource for immigrants looking for affordable health care. But Abbate says the percentage of non-English-speaking patients seeking treatment prior to the policy change is actually quite low.
"It's not like we have hundreds of people who come in that don't speak English," Abbate says. "They're actually few and far between."
Facilities that can afford to employ professional interpreters hold them to the same confidentiality requirements expected of other medical personnel.
"We treat all comers," says Don Butterfield, a spokesman for St. Vincent Hospital. "That is our mission. We are able to provide interpretive services consistent with local and federal confidentiality standards."
But it isn't feasible for many facilities-SAC among them-to employ
professional interpreters. Which means many non-English-speaking patients typically rely on friends and family members to relay important medical and legal information to them.
"There are questions we ask that are often embarrassing," Abbate says. "It's really difficult-even if you're a professional practitioner-to know if all of the information is being conveyed. We can't be assured that we're getting the correct information or even the correct diagnosis."
According to Abbate, that kind of ambiguity raises both ethical and legal problems that could leave an organization like SAC susceptible to lawsuits. Even so, Abbate says the school will not shut its doors to non-English-speaking patients completely if a supervisor overseeing treatment can adequately communicate with a patient.
"It has nothing to do with a foreign language or non-English-speaking patients," Abbate says. "It's about being able to communicate. If we have someone on staff that can speak the patients' language-whatever the language-we have no problem treating those patients."
Following SFR's inquiries into SAC's decision, Rosemarie Ortiz-the executive director of the State Board of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine-announced that the board would hold a special review session of the new SAC policy at a meeting to be held June 1 at the State capital.
