Connections: April 2023 - 5
A bridge
between cultures
Help in navigating healthcare
Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Arabic,
Vietnamese, Swahili, Russian, Bosnian,
Cantonese, Portuguese-these are just
a few of the many languages spoken by
Dartmouth Health patients. And often, they
have limited or no knowledge of English.
So how do those patients deal with the
complexities of healthcare? How do they
describe symptoms, understand diagnoses,
follow medication instructions, fill out forms
or give informed consent? And on the other
hand, how do our providers and other staff
involved in patient care do their jobs?
The answer: professional medical
interpreters.
Dartmouth Health provides professional
medical and American Sign Language
interpreters free of charge no matter where
they're needed in the system.
Sam Verkhovsky, system director
of Medical Interpreter and Translation
Services in the Office of Care Experience,
oversees the process that provides Limited
English Proficient patients with equitable
access to healthcare services. The largest
concentrations of Limited English Proficient
patients, Verkhovsky says, are in Nashua,
Manchester and Lebanon, followed by Keene
and Concord.
As you can imagine, medical interpreters
shoulder a huge responsibility. " It's very, very
demanding, " Verkhovsky says " They cannot
miss any word, any detail. Maintaining
the fidelity of meaning and message is
paramount. An interpreter must be like a
transparent piece of glass. "
The process starts with an electronic
medical record notification to one of the
system's interpreter services coordinators
that services will be needed for a patient.
Verkhovsky says the coordinator will first
determine the nature of the visit: Is it a
relatively simple appointment or follow-up?
Or is it a more complex scenario?
" We work with local agencies that provide
us with medically trained interpreters, "
says Verkhovsky, who was once a Russian
medical interpreter. For the simpler visits,
there are remote interpreters, by video
or telephone. " We have almost 130 video
remote interpreter devices for 40 languages
and telephonic remote interpreters for up to
160 languages. " For more complex cases, the
coordinator will try to arrange an in-person
interpreter.
Verkhovsky adds, " We would like to
provide in-person interpreters to all of our
patients, but that's just not possible, mostly
because within a radius of 50 or even
100 miles of a clinical location there are
only so many Spanish interpreters, Arabic
interpreters, Mandarin interpreters, Urdu
interpreters. And Dartmouth Health isn't
their only client; they also work for courts,
schools and government agencies. In
addition, many encounters don't require inperson
interpreters. We need to manage our
programs in fiscally responsible ways. "
Sam Verkhovsky, system director
of Medical Interpreter and Translation
Services in the Office of Care Experience
Could AI
make it easier?
We've been hearing a lot about
artificial intelligence and how it's going to
transform our lives. So, with AI's lightningfast
output and its abilities way beyond
those of the human brain, could AI soon
replace humans in medical interpreting?
Sam Verkhovsky thinks not.
" While artificial intelligence is making
great strides in many areas, " he says, " a
human interpreter cannot be replaced
by machine translation, in healthcare
especially. Emotion, pain, suffering,
anxiety, sadness, fear, ambivalence,
confusion, facial expressions and body
language and feelings that the patient
experiences cannot be communicated
or preserved if we rely on computers or
machines. Also, importantly, professional
interpreters are not just mediators
of language but mediators between
cultures, which involves complex
understanding of society and different
cultures, which also exist in healthcare. "
Connections: April 2023
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Connections: April 2023
Connections: April 2023 - 1
Connections: April 2023 - 2
Connections: April 2023 - 3
Connections: April 2023 - 4
Connections: April 2023 - 5
Connections: April 2023 - 6
Connections: April 2023 - 7
Connections: April 2023 - 8
Connections: April 2023 - 9
Connections: April 2023 - 10
Connections: April 2023 - 11
Connections: April 2023 - 12
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-november-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-october-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-september-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-august-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-july-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-june-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-may-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-april-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-march-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-february-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-january-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-december-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-november-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-october-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-september-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-august-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-july-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-june-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-may-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-april-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-march-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-february-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-january-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-december-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/dartmouthhealth/Dartmouth/connections-november-2022
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