Close to 20 percent of US residents speak a language other than English at home, and nearly 10 percent speak English less than "very well." These numbers have grown over the past decade, and can impact on efforts to improve health care delivery, outcomes, and safety. This session will present approaches that meet federal and state regulatory guidelines for language access and alignment of access programs with overall quality and safety goals.

      After this presentation you will be able to:

• Describe the impact of language access on quality and safety outcomes.
• Identify resources for address language barriers.
• Plan steps to integrate quality improvement work and language access.