Doctors From Mexico Treat Farmworkers in Rural California Claudia Boyd-Barrett - CHCF.org
go to original June 28, 2023

Patient Marta Alicia Monteya, right, worried about bonding with a new physician after her miscarriage, was surprised and pleased by the relaxed, friendly manner of Spanish-speaking ob/gyn Armando Moreno, left, a physician from Mexico. (Zaydee Sanchez)

Currently 24 Mexican doctors serve majority Latino/x and farmworker populations at clinics in Monterey, San Benito, Tulare, and Los Angeles Counties. Each doctor is licensed by the Medical Board of California (PDF) to work in the state for three years. Specialties included in the project are family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology.

The first Mexican doctors began arriving in mid-2021, and six more are due soon. As of last December, the doctors had treated tens of thousands of Californians. In Salinas alone, they’d conducted 24,000 medical visits for routine screenings, diabetes care, urinary tract infections, and a broad array of other matters.

Latino/x people comprise the largest racial and ethnic group in California, making up 39% of the population in 2020. Yet, only 12% of the state’s medical school graduates and 6.9% of licensed physicians were Latinos/x by 2019 (PDF), according to the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity at George Washington University.

This disparity in representation of Spanish-speaking Latino/x doctors detracts from patient satisfaction and can harm the quality of care, said Cuevas, whose organization operates 13 clinics across the Salinas Valley and the Greater Monterey Bay Area. Research from UCLA (PDF) backs up Cuevas’s years of personal experience.

“It’s important for physicians to be able to speak the language of the population [they serve]. That way you’re able to communicate and get the little nuances of what people are saying,” Cuevas said. “Another part is an emotional aspect, where the patient has to feel that they can trust their doctor, and I think first and foremost to trust anybody you have to be able to communicate with them, preferably in a language that they understand.”

Researchers at UC Davis are evaluating the impact of the program, and results are expected this year. Anecdotally, since the doctors from Mexico began arriving at health centers operated by Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas, patient satisfaction has increased, said Hina Sheth, the organization’s director of compliance and quality.

Patients used to complain to her about not feeling understood by their providers, Sheth said. Now they tell her how much they love the Spanish-speaking physicians. Appointments with the doctors fill up fast, with many patients asking for them by name. Moreno said at least one patient a day tells him how glad they are that he’s there.

Read the rest at CHCF.org

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