Whether you are responsible for interpretation services at your organization, or a clinician caring for limited English-proficient (LEP) patients, or an administrator interested in language access issues as they relate to regulatory compliance, you are more likely than most to understand the difficulty that language barriers cause in our daily practice of quality health care.
Our patient population is growing and becoming more diverse. And the gaps in our current abilities to serve these patients are getting wider, causing unforeseen harm. Your organization's financial resources to pay for language services are limited, and it's impossible to have live interpreters for every medical encounter, in every language. Producing quality translated documents and multilingual signs, scheduling interpreters to meet peak demands, and educating staff members about the appropriate use of interpreters is an enormous challenge for any health care organization.
And it's not just an issue of language barriers -- we need to deliver care that is sensitive to the patient's cultural and religious heritage. We need to understand these beliefs and provide care that is consistent with and accommodates these beliefs. Our patients need to understand that we listen and care about these issues in addition to treating their medical condition.
Fundamental to our company's philosophy is that we -- all of us -- need to address these issues head on. Instead of avoiding the issue and hoping that it will go away, we need to be proactive before something serious happens to one of our patients. We need to provide better, more accessible service, in more languages, at all points of the medical encounter, with every staff member instantly knowledgeable of each patient's unique cultural and religious needs. Live interpreters should be more readily available to every clinician who needs them. And we should be able to do this at less cost.
The key to this vision is the incorporation of technology in language access services. As electronic health care information systems have transformed the storage and retrieval of health records, technology can significantly improve language access services. But as health record systems did not displace clinicians, technology will always be a complementary solution - not a replacement for live interpreters.
The answer to minimizing cost is to share resources. Why redevelop processes over and over again at each institution? Why not learn from each others successes and failures and share what we've learned with others? This is why we started Polyglot - to create, collaborate, and distribute the best-practice technology for language access in health care. With your help, we pledge to create the best, cost effective solutions using practical, simple ideas. This is our purpose.
Charles Lee, MD
Founder & President
08 13 2008
Newsday.com: Census report sees minorities becoming majority by 2042
08 08 2008
USA Today: States mandate 'culturally competent' health care
06 20 2008 
Meducation demonstrations now available at pgsi.com
05 29 2008
Medical Interpreters Break Down Language Barriers for Hospitals and Patients
04 20 2008
Racial And Ethnic Minorities Perceive Their Health Care As Worse Than Care Given To Whites
"Providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services goes beyond patient's rights. In fact, these issues are critical in the delivery of safe, quality patient care." - Paul Schyve, MD
Senior Vice President
The Joint Commission
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
- American Translators Association
- California Healthcare Interpreting Association
- Center for Applied Linguistics
- Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health
- Disparities Solutions Center
- DiversityRX
- EthnoMed
- Hablamos Juntos
- International Medical Interpreters Association
- LEP.gov
- Minority Health Network
- Modern Language Association
- National Center for Cultural Competence
- National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities
- National Council on Interpretation in Health Care
- National Health Law Program
- National Multicultural Institute
- Office of Minority Health
- Speaking Together
- US Census Bureau Race Data
- Yamada Language Guide
