How Interpretation Works in the Healthcare Setting

Jun 29, 2020 | Post

healthcare interpreting

How Interpretation Works in the Healthcare Setting

Jun 29, 2020

The way in which healthcare providers communicate with their patients depends on a range of factors; such as their culture, age, language, and physical and mental condition.

Most health care interpreters are responsible for providing face-to-face interpretation between patients and providers to ensure that the patients will receive the very best care. Any type of language barrier can hinder diagnosis, treatment, and further care for the patient. If there is a community that has language barriers, then they will need a medical interpreter to ensure that they get the proper care.

With that in mind, here is some insight on how interpretation works in the healthcare setting.

Related: Maintaining Compliance: Medical Documents That Need to Be Translated

What Is The Role Of An Interpreter In The Healthcare Sector?

Interpreters provide the key elements of communication between patients who do not speak English and their health care providers. They provide primary language services to limited English-speaking patients, which will allow them to convey their symptoms, worries, and questions safely and securely.
They can bring both comfort and support to limited English speakers that are struggling to understand the types of treatment they may need or questions relating to their health and diagnosis, which can spark anxiety and fear within patients. That is what makes interpreters so valuable in this day and age.
According to the US Census Bureau, over 25 million Americans do not speak English fluently. Within the healthcare industry, this is where the language barrier can pose the most dangerous problems. Lack of communication between families, providers, and patients could result in complications and misunderstandings that could lead to misdiagnosis or an incorrect treatment plan.
It is crucial for interpreters to be properly trained and certified to help bridge the gap in the language barrier between patient and healthcare provider. If someone has not been properly trained, they will not be familiar with how to properly execute the correct process, terminology, and roles of the interpreter that are required for effective communication.

Having trouble communicating with your patients? Check out how Liberty Language Services can help.

Key aspects that interpreters must undertake:

● The interpreter will provide accurate and unbiased information to patients without influencing their medical decisions. They must professionally provide this information without conveying any emotional bias. Interpreters do this by interpreting everything exactly as it is said and don’t input their own opinion.

● They will provide a level of comfort to the patients, increasing patient satisfaction with healthcare providers. This will reflect positively on your team of physicians and nurses.

● The interpreter must comply with the regulations provided, or they will face severe penalties. Title VI, The Joint Commission, the American with Disabilities Act, HIPAA, and ACA influence the financial position of a healthcare organization; therefore, all interpreters must comply with this.

● They ease the role of all medical professionals by allowing patients to build up trust across all levels, which will relieve any burdens for both medical professionals and patients. Generating a level of trust via the use of an interpreter will be beneficial both financially and medically.

● Trained medical interpreters can help reduce the risk of misdiagnosis or improper treatment.

● The medical interpreter can ensure that the patient’s request for a DNR (do-not-resuscitate ) is properly voiced to the providers to obtain an appropriate treatment plan.

Related: How Can I Become a Certified Medical Interpreter

Where To Find Interpreting Services

It’s essential for interpreters to be highly skilled and qualified, and for them to accurately demonstrate their proficiency in their chosen languages. They would be trained to an expert level to ensure that communication is not misinterpreted and that they are delivering only the very best level of work.

Online Interpreting Services are available at Liberty Language Services, which provide you with excellent interpreters that can work with you to facilitate communication through the language barrier that inhibits the progression of both treatment and recovery across all areas of medicine. Whether that’s within physical or mental health, both are equally as challenging when language is an issue.

The US Census Bureau has found that over 350 languages are spoken in the USA, which significantly increases the chances of a medical professional coming into contact with a limited English-speaking patient. This shows that there will always be a need for interpreters.

Liberty Language Services provide the best medical interpreting service to help you communicate with your patients.

Bottom Line

Choosing the right interpreter is going to be a significant decision to make for your organization, they provide several valuable services that will help you smoothly run your organization to save lives, help those in need, and feel rest assured that miscommunication has been reduced. With that, you can provide the maximum care in a more secure environment, knowing that you have made the decisions without the fear of patients’ misunderstanding any words.

Qualified medical interpretation will improve patient satisfaction with their treatment, as well as bringing a better sense of community across all areas of the patient’s treatment, whether that is within the surgical teams, occupational therapy following a hospital stay, or during a visit to the ER. Any qualified medical interpreter can communicate all necessary information to you and your team with a calm and professional tone, so you can continue to create the best path of treatment and care for every patient.

Related: How to Overcome Language Barriers in Healthcare

Liberty and the Community
About Us Blog Liberty Gives Back Shop