Hello colleagues,

Telephonic interpreting is very well established in many parts of the US
and was started in California in the US 70s by a police officer who
couldn't communicate with community members, and started Language Line,
the largest telephonic interpreting company worldwide, which has a
subsidiary in the UK and has interpreters working from the US, Central
America, and Australia to better serve different time zones. It was
started in Australia in the 70s as well. There are other large national
telephonic interpreting companies such as Cyracom, Pacific Interpreters,
and Certified Interpreters who do a great job in the US. With the advent
of phone interpreting there is no longer the excuse of 'the interpreter
wasn't available' as anywhere there is a phone there can be an
interpreter. This is specially important in rural areas where there will
never be a professional interpreter available in all languages, due to
the very specialized nature of our work. In addition, there are two
companies that have even designed applications for the iphone, Language
Line and Interpreter.com where any language minority individual who
creates an account can have access to an interpreter in several
languages at any time of the day or night. This will revolutionize
cross-cultural communications that require interpreting as it will
become a service that is easily available to any individual who needs it
on demand in the most spoken languages.

In the US, the state of Massachusetts has the largest number of staff
employed as dedicated professional interpreters in hospitals, not
California or New York. There are certainly many articles about the
diversity in those areas, but Massachusetts has been at the forefront of
the medical interpreting profession the US since the 60s. Not only it
formed the first trade association for medical interpreters in the early
80s, the first code, first standards, it issued the first ever state
interpreter law in 2000, hired the first interpreters back in the 60s,
developed the first ever  US notice about one's right to an interpreter
(now replicated worldwide), and hosts the only annual international
conference on the subject. Its governor has come up with the first ever
government led ethnic radio media initiative in the US to educate
patients in their language about their rights to a qualified medical
interpreter. http://www.imiaweb.org/states/MA.asp 

Some hospital systems in Massachusetts have internal phone interpreter
call centers, like Cambridge Health Alliance, where I work, with
advanced routing and monitoring systems that work within a decentralized
hospital system (over 25 sites) in addition to relying on vendors when
all our call center interprters are occupied with patients. Of our 80
staff interpreters, some work on the phone and in person, rotating,
while some are dedicated to in person and others to the call center. See
attached presentation. 

Also attached is a document I put together a few years ago to educate
our providers on whether to request phone or in person interpreting when
they dial into our department. They dial 3333 and get the option of
dialing 1 for face to face or 2 for phone. The provider and patient are
ultimately the ones to decide what modality to use. If a face to face is
not available then phone is offered as preferable to a non professional
service such as family or friends. 

The Massachusetts Dept of Public Health recommends a ratio of not more
than 40% phone at this time. The Office of Minority Health changed its
name to Health Equity Office and is not directly under the Executive,
our Governor. They are the first state that attached the hospital's
process of a determination of need application with an automatic site
visit from their office to audit language services, something which
assisted Massachusetts hospitals in improving their language services.
Massachusetts is also the first state to require hospitals to collect
racial, ethnic and language of care data from all patients in order to
reduce health disparities from an institutional perspective.

Please feel free to follow up with me on any of these issues. 

Izabel

______________________________ 
Izabel Arocha, M.Ed. Cultural & Linguistic Educator and TCH Multilingual
Manager, Cambridge Health Alliance 617.665.1970 pager 617.546.0425
Always work with a qualified interpreter or translator.
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______________________________ 
Izabel Arocha, M.Ed. 
President - International Medical Interpreters Association -
www.imiaweb.org 
IMIA - Leading the advancement of professional interpreters.
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-----Original Message-----
From: Health of minority ethnic communities in the UK
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lisa Fontes
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2010 5:55 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Is telephone interpreting ever preferred?

As someone who frequently trains and consults regarding interviewing
people of diverse cultures, I greatly appreciate this discussion of
interpreting. From what I can tell, access to telephone and in-person
interpreters is much more established in the U.K. than in the U.S.,
where--except for New York City and parts of California--it's pretty
random, depends on the agency, etc. EVEN in New York City and
California, actually, access to quality interpreting is far from
assured.

I am wondering if people can discuss any situations where telephone
interpreting might be preferred. I have spoken with people who were part
of small ethnic communities in rural areas, for instance, who prefer the
anonymity of telephone interpreting for sensitive issues. Has this been
your experience, too, or have your interpreting services somehow
overcome this barrier?

Thanks for the great discussion!

Lisa Fontes, Ph.D.
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA USA
Author: Interviewing Clients Across Cultures Guilford Press