Deadline:

Apr 26, 2006 - Closed

Program Area:

Quality/Equality

Purpose:

Speaking Together: National Language Services Network, a new Robert Wood Johnson Foundation national
program, will support hospitals to improve the quality and availability of health care language services for
patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). Speaking Together: National Language Services Network has
four goals:
1. To improve communication between patients with LEP and their health care providers.
2. To work in partnership with hospitals to develop models of high-quality language services.
3. To enable hospitals to develop ongoing useful measures of effectiveness and create language services performance benchmarks.
4. To encourage grantees to share successful strategies to increase effective language services within and across hospitals and health systems.

Program Information:

• Call for Proposals

Eligibility & Selection Criteria:

Non-federal, general acute-care hospitals with a minimum of 10,000 discharges per year are eligible to apply to be part of the hospital learning collaborative. Participating hospitals must serve a substantial number of patients with LEP and currently operate a language services program that involves an on-site professional interpreter(s). The program is not limited to any specific language(s) spoken by the patients.

Total Award:

• Up to 10 sites will be selected to participate in the 16-month collaborative learning network.
• Each site will receive a grant of up to $60,000 and technical assistance and training.

Related Materials:

• View National Program Office