(A613) Readmission and ED Visit Rates Among Head and Neck Cancer Patients with Limited English Proficiency

Introduction: Disparities in healthcare outcomes among patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) are well-documented. The goal of this study was to evaluate the specific impact of LEP on readmission and ED visit rates in head and neck cancer patients.

Methods: This is a single institution retrospective cohort study of adults (18+) diagnosed with head and neck cancer and who received treatment at Loyola University Medical Center from January 2012 to December 2022. Patient’s with LEP were matched with patients who were English proficient.

Results: There was a total of 204 total patients included in the study, 102 with LEP and 102 that were English proficient. The majority of patients were male (n=142, 69.61%). The average patient age was 64 years. Patients most identified as White (67.65%), followed by Multiracial (22.55%), African American (4.90%), and Asian (3.92%).  The three most common non-English primary languages spoken were Spanish (38.23%), Polish (31.37%), and Gujarati (7.84%).

LEP did not demonstrate a significant effect on ED visits at 30 days (p = 0.07) or at 90 days (p = 0.70). At 1 year, patients with LEP showed a significantly lower risk of ED visits compared to English proficient patients (OR 0.31, p=0.05). LEP did not demonstrate a significant effect on readmission at 30 days (p = 0.32), 90 days (p = 0.27), or at 1 year(p = 0.35).

Conclusions: The odds of an ED visit at 1-year post-treatment are significantly lower for patients with LEP than for patients with no LEP. The odds of readmission rates at 30 days, 90 days, and 1 year and the odds of ED visits at 30 days and 90 days were not found to vary significantly based on the patient’s level of English proficiency.