Christiana Care Health System is one of the largest health care providers in the mid-Atlantic, serving all of Delaware and parts of PA, MD and NJ.

ChristianaCare

New Row

Contact expert @[Full Name](fullname), @[Job Title](job_title) at @[Organization](organization) for media, speaking, professional opportunities and more.

@[Full Name](fullname) at @[Organization](organization) | Contact Form

Expert Inquiry

Open Sans

Providers’ Perceptions of Medical Interpreter Services and Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Patients: Understanding the “Bigger Picture”

Hospital staff use of interpreter services for patients with limited english proficiency

Language needs and health literacy for post-partum mothers

Jacqueline Ortiz is the vice president for Health Equity and Cultural Competence at ChristianaCare. In this role, Ortiz develops strategic clinical partnerships, creates and implements a portfolio of innovative programs and evidence-based initiatives to identify, evaluate and eliminate disparities in health care process and outcomes. Her focus is on building the organizational capacity to reduce the incidence of disease and improve health outcomes, advance equitable health care services, and reduce health disparities for identified conditions and target populations.

Health Equity

Cultural Competence

Language Services

Downloadable head shot of Jacqueline Ortiz

Finding a doctor who looks like you: Delaware health care providers take aim at disparities

UP CLOSE: Transforming interpretation at Yale New Haven Hospital

Christiana Care residents do poverty simulation

christianacare-caregivers-help-our-neighbors-on-martin-luther-king-jr-day-of-service

Caregivers and volunteers assemble 3,500 supply kits for neighbors transitioning to permanent housing and for those getting cancer treatment

Chief Community Health Impact Officer

Director, Inclusion & Diversity

Chief Public Affairs Officer and Chief Health Equity Officer

More than 200 ChristianaCare caregivers and their families came together for a systemwide service project on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service on Jan. 20 to pack supply kits for neighbors in need.

 Hosted by ChristianaCare’s Office of Inclusion & Diversity, caregivers united in service on our Cecil County, Newark and Wilmington campuses. 

These volunteers assembled 3,500 supply kits with essential items like washcloths, dish soap and detergent for individuals transitioning into permanent housing and toiletries, journals and puzzle books for patients in treatment for cancer at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute.

The kits also carried inspiration. Caregivers handwrote encouraging messages that were tucked in alongside toiletries and other essentials: “You’ve got this!” “You are stronger than you know.” “This is tough. But so are you!”

 Other caregivers delivered the inspirations and the kits to the the Graham Cancer Center, the Union Hospital Emergency Department, New Castle County Hope Center, Inc., and other community partners.

Natalie Torres, director of Inclusion & Diversity, credited ChristianaCare’s Supply Chain and Transportation departments with making sure toiletries and other supplies were available at the three campus locations and also coordinating the pickup and delivery of donations.

 “This service project is such a powerful reminder of how our values of love and excellence shine through in everything that we do,” Torres said.

“Dr. King truly resonates with who we are as an organization. Serving our community, connecting with one another, making a difference — it’s what we do best — and we are so honored to carry on this tradition in Dr. King’s name.”


ChristianaCare Caregivers Help Our Neighbors on Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service

jacqueline-ortiz-honored-for-increasing-patient-access-to-interpreter-services

Fifty-eight years ago, a young man from Argentina wound up in surgery at a California hospital after stomach pains turned out to be peritonitis, a potentially life-threatening inflammation of the membrane lining the abdominal wall. He was discharged to his wife’s care, with one problem — neither the man nor his wife had any idea how to care for the open wound in his abdomen.

 Jacqueline Ortiz  The couple did not understand the lengthy instructions delivered in English, and there was no interpreter to explain to them in their native Spanish what to expect.

So, when the man tried to take a bath and discovered the gauze was stuck to his wound, he didn’t know what to do. Fear and uncertainty compounded an already stressful time.

Jacqueline Ortiz wasn’t yet born when her father’s health care emergency took place, but growing up she heard the story over and over.

It was more than family lore for Ortiz — it was a lesson.

Ortiz said she wanted her mother, pictured with her at the DVTA event, to see the growing number of people working as interpreters to ensure people get the information they need in the language they understand. Ortiz, now the vice president for Health Equity and Cultural Competence at ChristianaCare, saw firsthand how the experience left her parents terrified of the medical environment.

Removing barriers to good health  Years later, Ortiz is a leader in advocating for patients to have access to qualified, culturally responsive medical interpreting services to remove communication barriers with providers and ensure the best possible care and outcomes.

“Language access is what fills my heart and soul,” Ortiz said.

Her pioneering efforts and enthusiasm for promoting the use of trained interpreters in health care earned Ortiz the inaugural Making an Impact Award from the Delaware Valley Translators Association (DVTA) during an event Sept. 9 at Widener University.

In her role at ChristianaCare, she builds the organization’s capacity to reduce the incidence of disease and improve health outcomes, advance equitable health care services, and reduce health disparities for identified conditions and target populations through culturally competent care, including providing health care in patients’ native languages.

She has over 20 years of experience researching, teaching and working in cultural competence and health equity, social networks, and economic sociology.

“Language access is what fills my heart and soul,” Ortiz said. A vision for serving everyone  Eliane Sfeir-Markus, CHI, president of the DVTA, said the award recognizes the efforts of those working to make interpreting and translation more available to people with limited English proficiency, and those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Ortiz’s pioneering work to expand language services for patients and implement comprehensive cultural competence training at ChristianaCare have set a standard for caring for patients in their native languages.

“Jaki’s vision for a health care system that truly serves everyone, regardless of their cultural or linguistic background, is inspiring,” Sfeir-Markus said. “We as patients deserve someone who knows our culture to take care of us.”

ChristianaCare has more than 20 health care interpreters and over 100 caregivers who have undergone additional training to provide interpreting services when needed.

ChristianaCare has more than 20 health care interpreters — who wear eggplant-colored uniforms — and over 100 bilingual caregivers who have undergone special training to serve as interpreters in some settings. “Jaki is a well-known name in the field of interpreting and translation because she has advocated for education and professionalization of interpreters in health care,” said Claudia Reyes-Hull, MArch, CMI, CHI, manager of Cultural and Linguistic Programs at ChristianaCare.

“Thanks to her advocacy, more health care systems are recognizing the need to have trained interpreters for their patients.”

In accepting the award, Ortiz said interpreters play a critical role in health care by making it possible for patients — and their families — to take an active role in their own care and decrease the anxiety over visiting a health care provider.

She credited the success of ChristianaCare’s interpreting and translations services and its continued growth to the collaborative spirit and camaraderie among its team of caregivers, particularly Reyes-Hull.

Ortiz said her family’s personal experience with a lack of interpreting services during a hospital stay made them anxious about health care for years. “Probably all of us in this room have walked into a courtroom or a lawyer’s office or a hospital room or a clinic and introduced ourselves and seen that immediate response and relaxation in the person we were speaking with,” Ortiz said to the translators at the DVTA event.

“You make those interactions within our legal, educational and health care systems so much better.”

 


Jacqueline Ortiz Honored for Increasing Patient Access to Interpreter Services

Jacqueline Ortiz, MPhil, director of Cultural Competence and Language Services, talks about the importance of language and cultural understanding in partnering with patients in their health. Christiana Care has a robust program of medical interpreter services and cultural competency to ensure that we are respectful, expert, caring partners to everyone we serve.

Las invitamos a compartir una plática con nosotras en “Un Cafecito con Amigas.”  En este video compartimos un café con la Dra. Maria Soler, Claudia Angelica Reyes-Hull y Jacqueline Ortiz de ChristianaCare para hablar sobre cómo mantenernos seguras durante el embarazo en plena pandemia de COVID-19.  Después de mirar el video pueden enviarnos una o más preguntas a culture@christianacare.org.

We invite you to join us for "Coffee with Friends."  In this video we share a cup of coffee with Dr. Maria Soler, Claudia Angelica Reyes-Hull and Jacqueline Ortiz from ChristianaCare to chat about how to stay safe during pregnancy in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.  After watching the video you can send any questions to culture@christianacare.org.

Select Inquiry Type