Why Interpreting Services are Important for Medical Offices

A professional medical interpreter has a significant role to play in medical offices. Without overcoming the linguistic barriers, the relationship between a medical professional and a patient can never be made strong. Unfortunately, the majority of healthcare centers either provide inadequate linguistic aid or no service at all. As a consequence, patients that have limited English proficiency don’t receive the quality of healthcare that they rightfully deserve.

Unsatisfactory communication between doctors and patients can lead to fatal consequences for patients. In fact, several studies have shown that inappropriate medical treatment and misdiagnosis can take place when language barriers are not conquered.

A study reported that 52% of adverse events have taken place for the patients due to errors in communication.

Consequences of not hiring a professional medical interpreter

According to a recent NPR article, it was reported that the error rate for medical treatments was significantly less for medical centers that had a professional medical interpreter in place. However, in this case, the study emphasized mainly, on hiring interpreters that have received professional training rather than ad hoc interpreters.

Ad hoc interpreters are those that haven’t received any professional communication or interpretation training. Ad hoc interpreters are mostly family members or bilingual nurses.

One of the primary reasons why it is important to hire a qualified medical interpreter is because as professionals, they understand their responsibility in the healthcare setting. They are familiar with all the key medical terminologies and have received years of training for this purpose.