Despite a downward spiral in the economy, medical centers and hospitals throughout Boston, including Boston University’s Student Health Services, are still ensuring that non-English speaking patients receive accurate and complete medical assistance through medical translators in their native languages.
Boston Medical Center and Cambridge Health Alliance officials said despite a Feb. 16 Boston Globe editorial that reported a BMC doctor had to use the internet to diagnose a Brazilian man with testicular cancer, they are among many area hospitals and medical centers that have not cut language translators.
CHA and BMC provide interpreting services and websites in several languages, as well as free medical interpreters, according to their websites.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has increased the number of interpreters on its staff in the past three months and has not had to make any cuts, Shari Gold-Gomez, manager of the interpreter services at BIDMC, said. In December, BIDMC’s interpreter services hired a new Thai language interpreter.
‘[Medical centers] potentially put themselves in a position where patient safety is jeopardized when [they are lacking translators],’ Gold-Gomez said. ‘You increase potential for miscommunication and receive less than optimal results.” ‘ ‘ ‘
Gold-Gomez said BIDMC, which has the oldest formal interpreter program in Boston, began with one interpreter in 1979 and has since grown to 50 hired staff interpreters, with more part time translators for less common languages. Today, the primary language interpreted in the hospital is Spanish, she said.
‘Spanish was number one in demand in only the past three years,’ Gold-Gomez said.
The BIDMC interpreter service has been working with BU pre-medical school student translators since it was founded. The medical center currently employs two work-study students, she said. BU also has a professional certificate program for those who want to become medical interpreters, she said.
Health Care for All, a Massachusetts health organization that gives advice and support to English and non- English speakers in how to navigate health insurance options, hired a second Portuguese interpreter in the past year and has not cut any of their bilingual staff, HCFA Helpline Manager Kate Bicego said.
‘We get 1,100 calls per week directly to the Helpline,’ Bicego said. ‘Our Spanish and Portuguese counselors are always busy.’
SHS Assistant Director Chris Valadao said two months ago, SHS added a translator program for BU students who want to speak to someone in their native language about medical issues through a telephone translation service.
‘[Language barriers] could possibly be an issue, especially with a large international program at BU,’ Valadao said.
Despite this, the program has only been used once since its launch. Valadao said he attributes the low number of requests for medical translations to the English proficiency of most international students.
College of Arts and Sciences senior Hugo Juarez Michel said he would feel more comfortable speaking to a doctor who speaks his native language, Spanish, than speaking to a doctor through a translator.
School of Education freshman Lyle Ray Thomas Loewen said he would have been surprised if SHS didn’t have a translator service.
‘I think they should have [translator services], especially if you are providing jobs to students,’ Loewen said.
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