February 9, 2006 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Interpreters who can help doctors communicate with patients who speak Haitian Creole, Somali, Twi, and 150 other languages are just a phone call away, thanks to a nonprofit organization in Portland, Ore.
The Institute for Cultural Competency uses a sophisticated telephone routing service to join medical professionals and their patients who don’t speak English with one of 2,500 interpreters through a teleconference during which they can discuss their cases. The interpreters, who work from their homes, are assisting more than 400 hospitals, clinics, and individual doctors.
Clear communication between patients seeking medical treatment and the doctors and nurses who treat them can make a difference in the quality and appropriateness of the care they receive, says Jim Manczak, president of the cultural institute.
He says that if emergency-room personnel rely on a Spanish-speaking patient’s limited English or a staff member’s limited Spanish, instead of using a fluent interpreter, they may be able to identify only a few of the patient’s symptoms. Missing just one or two symptoms, he says, can be dangerous. For example, diabetes might be misdiagnosed as the flu, says Mr. Manczak.
He says the availability of professional interpreters also eliminates patients’ need to rely on family members to pass along medical information.
The family member with the best command of English often is a child, he says, who may then be called on to relay complex or upsetting information to an elder. Mr. Manczak recalls a friend who took on the role of interpreter for her immigrant family at the age of 10 and had to explain to her aunt and uncle that her aunt had suffered a miscarriage.
Improvements in telecommunications technology have helped bring down the cost of hiring an interpreter, making it an option for many more organizations. The Institute for Cultural Competency provides its services for 75 cents to $1.25 a minute, depending on how often an organization uses the service. In the past, says Mr. Manczak, such services would have cost $2 to $7 per minute, depending on the language and time of day.
For more information: Go to http://www.i2c.cc.
