Growing up, Dr. Jorge Rivas Ochoa often served as his family’s interpreter during appointments. But at 16, when he needed an emergency appendectomy, his parents — who didn’t speak English — struggled to understand the surgeon’s explanation of his condition, and he was in no position to help either.

Now, Ochoa is returning to Modesto as a physician with hopes to bridge gaps in access for Spanish-speaking patients.

“I want to be back and help the community that I came from,” Ochoa said.

Ochoa is one of 39 physician residents in the inaugural class of residency programs at Sutter’s Memorial Medical Center, which launched this summer. Of those, 10 are from the Central Valley and 24 are from California. All residents speak at least one language in addition to English.

Faculty sought out bright, hardworking medical school graduates who care deeply about their patients, said Sutter spokeswoman Liz Madison. Being bilingual or multilingual, especially in Spanish, was considered a major plus.

As a teenager, Ochoa volunteered to help family and friends who worked as agricultural workers in the Central Valley. He noticed that many of them avoided seeing a doctor, even when injured, because they lacked medical insurance and didn’t speak English.

“Some of them were saying like, ‘Oh yeah, I don’t speak English, so how am I going to communicate if I go see a doctor?’” Ochoa said.

While attending UC Davis Medical School, he volunteered at a free clinic providing primary care to uninsured and undocumented people in the Sacramento area. He recalled helping a woman with uncontrolled diabetes who was uninsured and didn’t speak English.

He spoke with her in Spanish, started her on diabetes medications and followed up with her on a monthly basis. He also referred her to an ophthalmologist for her vision issues and was able to get that visit covered.

“I feel like that my patient wanted to come back and still see me because, not only because of the care and the compassion that I provided, but more than anything, the culture… and the language that we connected [with],” Ochoa said.

He noted that while medical centers do have interpreters, it’s not the same as having a doctor who speaks the language and shares a cultural connection with patients.

He noted that although he is fluent in Spanish, he had to expand his vocabulary to include medical terminology — words for anatomy, symptoms, diagnoses, treatments and procedures — to communicate more effectively with patients. He practiced by studying bilingual medical terms and working with Spanish-speaking patients during his clinical rotations.

“At times, it was challenging. Some medical terms don’t have direct translations, or they may not be commonly used by patients. For example, saying ‘insuficiencia cardíaca congestiva’ (congestive heart failure) might require breaking it down further into simpler terms and explaining it as well,” Ochoa said.

Over time, he said, speaking with patients in Spanish became more natural and strengthened the connection he built with them. He added that he always strives to approach his patients with an open mind and a respect for their culture.

Dr. RaeLeigh Payanes, program director of Sutter Health’s Family Medicine Residency Program, said they value candidates with language and cultural competency skills because these qualities lead to better patient satisfaction.

“Our goal is always to recruit physicians who speak like the language of the patients that we serve,” Payanes said.

At Sutter’s Memorial Medical Center, 10% of patients self-report a “preferred” language other than English. Nearly 9% of those patients reported Spanish as their preferred language and 8.1% of patients report they need an interpreter for medical-related discussions.

Besides Spanish, the next most common languages spoken by patients are Assyrian, Punjabi and Portuguese. Interpreter services for patients are requested roughly an average of 653 times per month.

As patient volume increases, so does the need for interpreter services, Payanes said. Finding bilingual physicians can be challenging, she added, because certain communities remain underrepresented in medicine. Medical school and residency applications now allow candidates from those communities to self-identify their backgrounds.

For Payanes, being able to speak Spanish with her patients and build meaningful connections is one of the most rewarding parts of her practice.

“There’s just a sense of trust and a sense of openness when you can speak the same language,” Payanes said.

She said being able to speak the same language also helps the patient better understand their health and treatment plan. It also helps with efficiency in the clinic, as information doesn’t have to be relayed through an interpreter.

Payanes said language barriers can make it difficult for non-English speakers to even reach a doctor or schedule an appointment. Some patients worry that not speaking English makes them a burden to their doctors or fear they’ll be misunderstood. Meeting a physician who speaks their language often comes as a huge relief.

For physicians who aren’t bilingual, Ochoa, an internal medicine resident, recommends approaching patients with an open mind and asking about their culture and daily life to build trust.

Payanes said residents are taught to maintain eye contact with the patient — not the interpreter — and to watch for body language that might signal confusion. She also suggests asking patients to repeat back what they’ve heard to ensure they’ve understood correctly

She added that she hopes this residency program will inspire more physicians to stay in the area and serve the community.