Not the geek squad: How one health system helps patients conquer language barriers — and their smartphones
At this Massachusetts health system, "digital access coordinators" are standing by to help patients who might struggle with technology or language barriers.
LAWRENCE, MASS. — Herman Quintero was cracking jokes about the lottery, touching just below his right eye for luck. It came down to the Mega Millions to pay the medical bill he pulled up on the Patient Gateway app on his phone. Or somebody lending a hand, he said, eyes puckish as they peered out from under a navy blue Tigers baseball cap — a relic of his years working on a car assembly line in Detroit — and over at the Digital Access Coordinator sitting beside him. Janelle Vargas shook her head. After two years helping him navigate his health care online, she was used to Quintero’s quips.
It was Vargas who helped him learn how to pull up his bill, or check on the long list of medications — souvenirs from several surgeries, a hodgepodge of hip replacements and carpal tunnel release — in his records on the Mass General Brigham electronic patient portal.
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