Structural issues in the health care delivery system can disproportionately affect language minority patients who require interpretation services. This qualitative study addresses the issues Spanish-speaking Latinos face in obtaining health care by examining the experiences of 25 Spanish speakers in California’s Central Valley, a medically underserved area. The following barriers to communication emerged in the findings: time-restricted interactions, unfriendly encounters, discrimination, issues in interpreting, miscommunication, and opposition to providers. We report participants’ recommendations for improving health care communication, including the need for friendlier and more attentive services, more Spanish-speaking providers, and more time with providers. We argue that these recommendations are in line with Latino cultural constructs: confianza (trust), familismo (family-orientation), personalismo (friendliness), respeto (respect), and simpatía (kindness). This study raises awareness about how language use and intercultural competence affect health care communication by centering the voices of Spanish speakers across numerous contextualized examples.

卫生保健提供系统中的结构性问题会严重影响需要口译服务的少数语言患者。这项定性研究通过研究25位讲西班牙语的人在加利福尼亚医疗服务欠佳的地区中央谷地的经历，解决了讲西班牙语的拉丁美洲人在获得医疗保健方面面临的问题。调查结果中出现了以下沟通障碍：时间限制的互动，不友好的相遇，歧视，口译问题，沟通不畅以及对提供者的反对。我们报告了参与者改善医疗保健沟通的建议，包括对更友好，更周到的服务，更多说西班牙语的服务提供商以及与服务提供商更多时间的需求。我们认为这些建议与拉丁裔文化结构相符：confianza（信任），familismo（家庭方位），personalismo（友善），RESPETO（尊重），和SIMPATIA（善良）。这项研究通过将西班牙语使用者的声音集中在许多上下文相关的示例中，提高了人们对语言使用和跨文化能力如何影响医疗保健交流的认识。