Healthcare Interpreters Ease Communications

The rapidly evolving ethnic mix in the Twin Cities metropolitan area raises challenges in healthcare communications. That's where interpreters come in.

Interpreters facilitate conversations among people who speak different languages. In a healthcare setting, those conversations include medical terms and concepts, and may involve situations as routine as a checkup or as serious as a traumatic visit to the emergency room. Healthcare interpreters are expected to abide by a national code of ethics and keep those conversations confidential. They may earn between $16 and $25 an hour. For American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters, the hourly rate runs from $35 to $50, depending on the level of certification and experience.

Demand is high for varied languages

Allina Interpreter Services employs 34 interpreters who serve in the system's hospitals and clinics. The most requested languages are Hmong, Russian, Somali, Spanish and ASL, although the interpreters also speak Arabic; the African language Afar; French; the Cantonese, Mandarin and Taiwanese dialects of Chinese; the Malay language of Malaysia; and Vietnamese.

When there is a request for a language that the interpreters do not speak, Allina Interpreter Services requests the service from an outside agency. Services are provided in-person or by a telephone interpreter, are available around-the-clock and are free of charge to patients.

"The need for interpreters as well as the number of different languages requested continues to increase," says Maria Hitateguy, manager of Allina Interpreter Services. "Because medical interpreters are necessary to provide quality healthcare and it is a legal requirement for the healthcare providers, I think there will be always a need for qualified medical interpreters."

Education and screening

The University of Minnesota's Program in Translation and Interpreting currently offers a certificate in healthcare interpreting in Spanish, Russian and Somali upon the completion of six courses. Tuition is $1,000 for each course, according to Bruce Downing, program director. Although there are no clear standards for qualifications of healthcare interpreters in Minnesota, Downing says there is a bill working its way through the state Legislature that would establish a registry of interpreters and authorize planning for eventual certification.

"There is quite a bit of work going on to professionalize the field of interpretation and the expectations for interpreters are going to continue to increase," says Downing. "Training will certainly be part of that, just like for any other profession."

Nancy Crotti is a freelance writer who lives in St. Paul.