Hospital language interpreters are just a push of a button away

Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, Washington, has instituted a real-time language interpretation service that can be accessed via television monitors on a 24 hour basis.

It’s called MARTTI and it stands for My Accessible Real-Time Trusted Interpreter. Think of it as “language interpretation services meet Skype.” The unit is about the size of a standard computer screen and it can be used in clinical spaces to provide real-time interpretation in a multitude of languages.

At the push of a button hospital staff and patients can be connected to call centers in Ohio and California, according to Providence St. Peter Hospital spokesperson Chris Thomas.

The call centers are staffed with medical interpreters fluent in 208 languages, including American Sign Language, and they are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

According to Thomas, nearly a quarter of the hospital’s 1,500 staff members have been trained to use the units, with many more in-service trainings scheduled through March 2013.

“We have had them about a month, but they are (now) being more widely accepted by the staff,” said Thomas.

Ana Garcia, the hospital’s Interpretive Services coordinator, helped train about 200 staffers on the use of the units for all three of the hospital’s shifts.

“The Family Birthing Center wanted it immediately,” she said. “It’s quick immediate access … and has an interpersonal feel to it when the patients can see their interpreters.”

For further information on interpretation services available at Providence St. Peter Hospital, including telephone interpreting, please visit the hospital website.

By Alex Dupont
Marketing Communications Specialist
Language Translation Inc.

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