By: Alice Jefferson

Alice Jefferson — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 15:33:27 +0000

It has been traumatic to lose such wonderful, professional care givers and coworkers. Where once translation was a right it seems to have been devalued to a luxury. We all lose.

By: Elizabeth Olson

Elizabeth Olson — Sun, 30 Jul 2017 15:36:19 +0000

I read this article and literally felt like my personal job experience was on stage.
The hospital I was employed at also decided to close our Interpreter Services department for ‘financial’ reasons last year.
First it began with taking away weekend interpreters. Then a few months later taking away the overnight interpreters.
A telephonic service was implemented with sporadic training by someone in house, not even a trained expert from the company was provided to do the training. 4 months later we were all laid off.
Medical staff was upset and frustrated with the news. Many had yet to be trained.. Many questioned about true emergencies and what about the departments where you cannot use outside equipment? No one seemed to have an answer. It was all about saving money and everyone will be fine you just need to have patience.
I was fortunate enough to find a job 3 months later in the same community and continue to hear stories of the lack of medical interpreting that continues at the hospital with the new telephonic system.
Patients are having to fend for themselves using their cell phones or sit and wait until the medical staff can get someone on the phone or the medical staff themselves use their personal cell phones or hand gestures to communicate.
Some of the medical staff is unwilling to use the equipment because it takes too long or the knowledge of the ‘medical’ interpreter online, the calls get dropped, not sure of the dialect, and let us not forget the Spanglish which many feel is good enough to use for medical interpreting, etc. The hospital will get it’s quarterly reports and of course it will show savings. What they are not admitting to is the telephonic service is not being used to it’s full potential. As long as the hospital feels the savings is greater to use a machine vs a staff medical interpreter no changes will be made. I also agree that new technology has it’s place in all walks of life but when it comes to medical interpreting a machine is not always the answer just because it saves a dollar or two! We are talking about a human being not an object to be figured out at random by a machine!
Thank you Melissa Gonzalez. Your story gives me hope to push forward.

Comments on: Letter to the Editor

By: Alice Jefferson

By: Elizabeth Olson