BUSINESSBetter interpretation is just a phone call awayPhysicians and hospitals are turning to telephone interpreter services to comply with HHS regulations and work effectively in multicultural markets.By Julie A. Jacob, amednews staff. June 11, 2001. A patient walks in your door. She has recently moved from Russia and speaks no English. No one on your staff speaks Russian. Yet according to regulations issued last year by the Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights, you are obligated to provide an interpreter to communicate with her. So what do you do? One option is to pick up the phone and call a telephone language interpretation service. All you need is a telephone in the examining room with either a speaker phone or a dual handset. You call the service's toll-free number, dial in your ID code, tell the operator which language you need, and in a few minutes you are connected with an interpreter who speaks your patient's language. HHS regulations now require physicians who accept Medicaid and other government payments to provide interpretation services for non-English speaking patients. Telephone services can be quicker and less expensive than hiring an interpreter to comply with the rules (http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/lep/guide.html). Most of the 5.7 million people in the United States who speak little or no English are in California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. But the 2000 Census also confirmed the spread of non-English speakers to areas traditionally never seen by newly arrived immigrants. Logansport Memorial Hospital in Logansport, Ind., a city of 19,000 about 80 miles north of Indianapolis, treats many patients who speak Vietnamese, Bosnian or Spanish. The city's Latino population alone has gone up 2,500% in 10 years. Hospital physicians and allied health professionals rely on a telephone interpretation service to communicate with them.
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Copyright 2001 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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