Interpreters In Healthcare

In the healthcare setting, it is very important to use medical interpreters. Without interpreters, people who speak different languages would not be able to communicate with healthcare professionals. There are many different ways that a language can be interpreted. A couple of those are actual human interpreters, or electronic interpreters. Both are pretty reliable but an actual human is often looked at as the most reliable interpreter. When you have an actual human interpreting, you don’t have to worry to much on things being translated incorrectly. Some benefits of using electronic interpreters would be the unlimited availability of languages, and being able to get the iPad or laptop as soon as you needed it. When you rely on a person to

interpret you risk them walking off and not paying attention to when their patient is going to get called into their appointment. It is legally required that you do not discriminate and provide a non-English speaking person with proper interpretation. People especially need interpretation when they are about to receive important medical information from someone like a doctor or nurse. It is not as important for radiologist technologist to have an interpreter in the room when they do a procedure because we can show the patient what we need done. An interpreter must be present in any instance that the patient requests an interpreter or if they do not understand what is happening at all. Patients have the right to know what is about to happen to them and why it is happening. If a person does not understand english, then they wont know what and why they are involved in a procedure. Healthcare facilities are not as accepting of relatives as interpreters as they used to be because when a family member interprets, they could switch what the provider is trying to tell the patient. They could leave things out and only tell them what they want them to know or they could say something totally different from what the provider actually said. Family as interpreters could lead to legal issues and a lot of problems for the facility.