Hospital Offers Translation Services for Foreigners and Hearing Impaired
(Hudson, NY - March 9, 2007 ) – Whether you speak Hindi or Hebrew, Albanian or Arabic, Spanish or Swahili, Columbia Memorial Hospital can help you with your health care needs.
Since 1996, Columbia Memorial has used the AT&T Language Line, a telephonic translation line which uses a speaker phone, or in some cases a two hand set phone, to aid care givers in responding to patients who need assistance due to language barriers. This was done to not only provide language translation services to individuals from around the world who use Columbia Memorial but to provide for ‘accurate’ translation. The AT&T service uses only certified translators. This was also done to provide the optimum level of privacy for someone who might have a problem such as a woman with gynecological issues who does not wish to have a male who speaks the same language accompany her to the hospital to translate.
And now this system has been enhanced with a new visual aid. The system is quite simple, says Tish Finnegan, Director of Patient Relations at the hospital.
“Large, easy-to-read posters are framed on walls throughout the institution. When someone with English language difficulties approaches a receptionist, she or he can simply have the patient or visitor look at the poster and point to any of the 30 languages graphically presented there. Then, via telephone hook up, a ‘certified’ translator of that language is available to assist both patient and caregiver. This creates clear communication of critical health information and prompts fast and accurate diagnoses,” says Finnegan.
Some of the languages one might not expect to find are listed such as Amharic, a Semitic language from Ethiopia; Hmong, a language of the highland peoples of Thailand, Vietnam and China; Tagalog, a language of the Philippines; and Khmer, a Cambodian tongue.
“Bengali is a critical language for Columbia Memorial,” says Finnegan, “because we have such a large population of Bengali’s in the area.”
Other languages available in the translation program include Russian, Serbian, Armenian, Somali, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Croatian, French, Korean, Thai, German, Laotian, Urdu, Greek, Polish, and Vietnamese.
Columbia Memorial, an early adopter of programs and equipment that increase patient comfort, also provides equipment for those who are hearing impaired. Their new system is a video interpretation service that will make American sign language available at the click of a button.
“Like any of our diagnostic and service advances,” says Finnegan, “our goal is to provide the optimum level of patient satisfaction before, during and after their care here. This translation service and service for the hearing impaired fit neatly into our healthcare delivery system.”
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