Videoconferencing services offer language translators

Hospitals and clinics are exploring the alternative with non-English speaking patients, but experts say the cost must drop before it makes sense for private practices.

By Carolina Procter, AMNews staff. June 4, 2007.

Translation services are pitching -- and some hospitals are buying -- videoconferencing technology as a way to improve communication with patients who don't speak English.

But even vendors say that until they make the service more cost-effective, office-based physicians probably won't be interested.

Companies offer videoconferencing as a middle ground between phone translation services and on-site interpreters. Phone-based systems translate for physicians and patients but don't allow interpreters to detect important visual cues. In-the-flesh translators can get a full view of what a patient is trying to communicate, but they can be expensive, often requiring a two-hour minimum even if they're only needed for a five-minute visit.

Large hospitals and clinics are investing in the technology, paying a flat fee of $11,000 to $12,500 for each videoconferencing unit and around $3 per minute for translation.

Interpreters are on call or waiting at a videoconferencing center; they appear on a portable flat-screen monitor that physicians and staff can wheel from room to room. The companies offer interpreters for 150 languages -- many more than even large hospital systems generally have available -- and promise they'll be ready within five minutes of a request.

Emergency physician Michael Sayre, MD, who regularly uses a videoconferencing interpretation system at the Ohio State University Medical Center, said having the visual component makes "a huge difference." Because the system can be moved, translating can happen just about anywhere a patient might be.