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MURRAY — Visiting a clinic or a doctor can be a nerve-wracking experience if you don't speak English or if you speak only limited English.
"Many of us don't speak English. Sometimes you worry they won't understand you," said Luis Antonio Campos, a Herriman retiree originally from Mexico who underwent kidney and liver transplants last year.
Getting proper medical care is key to good health, though, and in a bid to augment offerings available to Utah's growing Spanish-speaking community, Intermountain Health has opened a facility geared specifically to those who speak Spanish as their first language, the Clinica Hispana de Riñón. The Hispanic Kidney Clinic, as translated into English, is housed at the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray and, most notably, many of the care providers speak Spanish, enabling better one-on-one communication with patients. The facility specializes in kidney transplants.
"I used to go to the office and see patients, and sometimes they were just relieved to see someone who looked like them," Alan Contreras, a transplant surgeon at the clinic, said Monday, when Intermountain publicly unveiled the new facility.
He's originally from Mexico and speaks Spanish, thus he's able to talk directly with Spanish-speaking patients about their medical issues without having to rely on a translator. But the significance of the new clinic goes beyond that. Coming from the Latino community sometimes enables him to better connect with Latino patients, to understand where they're coming from. "Sometimes it's not a language barrier but more ... a cultural barrier," he said.
When dealing with an issue as delicate as organ transplant, the level of understanding that can be reached via a shared language can go a long way in helping a reluctant patient understand their medical situation and options, including getting a new organ. "Kidney failure is very common and it's increasing in numbers all the way around the world," Contreras said.
What's more, dialysis, one of the common treatment methods for kidney problems, is very expensive and offers only a fraction of the benefits of a kidney transplant, underscoring the import of good communication to convey such information. Campos received care at the Murray hospital, and the new clinic, which opened last October, has so far provided transplants to about 60 patients.
Campos, originally from the Pacific coast city of Acapulco in Mexico, lauded the care he received from doctors, nurses and other caretakers in getting his two transplants, necessitated in part by a diet that had been heavy on fried food. Some Latinos may be leery about visiting doctors, worried about potential language barriers. "It's really hard when you don't know the language and nobody understands you," he said.
But he's sold on the Intermountain clinic in Murray. "I want to say to my Latino community — come. You have a lot of support in this hospital," he said.
Patients who get medical information "in their preferred language" will be more apt to fully take part in health care decisions, Intermountain said in a statement. Moreover, the statement noted, there are "many misconceptions" about transplantation in Spanish-speaking communities, which the new clinic aims to dispel.
Looking to the future, Contreras sees potential to expand the Spanish-language offering now focused on kidney treatment to other areas.
"I think this is a great beginning. I strongly believe the more we continue to do this, it's just going to be a natural step probably to provide these services in a different area," he said, beginning, perhaps, with treatment of liver ailments, including transplants.
