Letter from the President:

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 more diverse at an alarming rate. The gaps in our ability to serve limited-English proficient (LEP) patients are getting wider, causing unforeseen harm. Organizations have limited financial resource to fund language services, making it nearly impossible to have live interpreters available for every LEP medical encounter, in every language. When you add the need for high-quality translation of documents and signage, scheduling of language resources, and staff education on the appropriate protocol for interpreter use, the gaps appear insurmountable.

And it's not just an issue of language barriers – we need to deliver care that is sensitive to a patient's cultural and religious heritage. We need to understand their beliefs and provide care that is consistent with, and accommodates these beliefs. Our patients need to understand that we listen to them and care about these issues, in addition to treating their medical conditions.

Fundamental to our company's philosophy is that we – all of us – need to address these issues head on. Rather than avoiding them and wishing them away, we need to get proactive. We need to provide better, more accessible services in a greater array of languages. Staff members need to be knowledgeable of each patient’s unique cultural and religious needs. Live interpreters should be available to every clinician at the moment of need, not 30 minutes later. Most importantly, we need to provide these services within a reasonable cost structure.

The key to this vision is the incorporation of technology into language access services. As electronic health care information systems have transformed the storage and management of health records, so too can technology transform the availability and quality of language services. Language access technology should not be viewed as a replacement for interpreters, but rather a complementary solution designed to optimize interpreter value while expanding the total scope of language support.

The answer to maintaining a manageable language access budget is to share resources. Why develop processes in silos from institution to institution? Shouldn’t we learn from one another and share our failures and successes? The answer, of course, is yes. And this is why we founded 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 language solutions using practical approach. This is our purpose.

Charles Lee, MD
Polyglot Systems
Founder & President