Disclosures: Yvette E. Little, DO: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Case Diagnosis: A 60-year-old deaf (requires sign language) female with a right PCA territory infarct.

Case Description or Program Description: The patient suffered from a right PCA territory infarct involving the right occipital lobe, medial right temporal lobe, right splenium of the corpus callosum, and right thalamus causing her to have left-sided spastic hemiparesis and aphasia. She was transferred to inpatient rehabilitation to improve on ADLs and mobility where we were confronted with different obstacles due to the language barrier in the setting of aphasia. Initially, a video remote interpreting (VRI) service was used to communicate with the patient. However, she did not respond to this type of interpreting service. Therefore, an in-person hearing sign language interpreter was brought into the hospital but there were still difficulties with understanding the patient. For that reason, a Deaf-Hearing interpreter team was utilized to communicate with the patient which showed to be much more effective. Periodically, there were moments where the patient’s aphasia made it difficult to understand what she was expressing but overall, with the interpreter team, the medical staff was able to assess the patient’s medical needs and therapists were able to conduct productive therapy sessions.

Setting: Inpatient Rehabilitation

Assessment/Results: Throughout the patient’s inpatient rehabilitation course, it was noted that having a deaf-hearing interpreter team was most effective when communicating with the patient. Therefore, rounding and all therapy sessions were always scheduled during the time the interpreter team was present.

Discussion (relevance): Communication with patients who have communication disabilities should be as equally effective as speaking to a patient without a disability. There are many different resources that can be implemented to effectively communicate with patients who have communication disabilities.

Conclusions: Poor communication with patients who have communication disabilities can have adverse effects on patient care, diagnoses, treatment, and the relationship between a healthcare worker and the patient.

Level of Evidence: Level V

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/overcoming-communication-barriers-in-a-stroke-aphasic-deaf-patient-while-in-inpatient-rehabilitation-a-case-report/