The increased presence of trained language interpreters in hospital emergency rooms could go a long way toward reducing miscommunications and other critical errors—and doctors like Louis Hampers agree.

In April we reported on a study suggesting that having professional language translators for non-English speaking patients in hospital emergency rooms could help limit potentially dangerous and even life threatening miscommunication.

According to a Fox News report the study found that mistakes which could have "clinical consequences," like giving the wrong medication dose, were about twice as likely if there were no interpreters or if the translator was an amateur.

"The findings document that interpreter errors of potential clinical consequence are significantly more likely to occur when there is an 'ad hoc' or no interpreter, compared with a professional interpreter," said lead researcher Glenn Flores, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

These findings are supported by Dr. Louis Hampers, himself a veteran of pediatric emergency rooms and a long-time advocate of having interpreters as part of the hospital team. Hampers, who has conducted much research in this field, says the study highlights a significant problem with our healthcare system.

“Dr. Flores’ work has clearly shown the benefit of trained medical interpreters on the quality of care,” says Hampers, in a new statement to the press. “The challenge, of course, is meeting the demand for such services. Our recent work has shown that telephonic services may bridge that gap without a drop off in quality.”

Alex Dupont

See Also

• More about medical interpretation
  On-site and over-the-phone medical interpreters help healthcare providers to communicate with their limited English speaking patients. This promotes quality care at lower costs.
• Louis Hampers Responds to New Fox Report, Urges Hospitals to Combat Language Barriers
  A new Fox News Report says that having interpreters present in emergency rooms could go a long way toward reducing miscommunications and other errors.
• Emergency Room Language Interpreters help to reduce medical errors
  Our blog reporting the results of a medical study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.