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Video Aid is Letting Medical Center Patients Speak Up

Posted on: Tuesday, 10 January 2006, 21:00 CST

By Suzanne Hoholik, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

Jan. 10--At least twice a shift, emergency-department nurse Susan Brooks needs an interpreter to help her talk to patients.

But a translator can be a half-hour from Ohio State University Medical Center, and the need keeps growing. The OSU hospital system had 15,000 requests for translators last year.

Since May, though, Brooks has been able to push a computer cart to a patient's bedside and press a button to be connected to a translator. Cameras on both ends allow translator and patient to see each other.

"It's wonderful because you don't have to wait," she said. "You can see this big relief on their faces that someone can communicate with them."

The faster the medical staff can hear patients describe their symptoms, the sooner treatment can begin.

The Personal Assisted Languages system, called PALs, is operated by Language Access Network, a company with translators in Columbus who speak at least 17 languages.

The company has an agreement with an Oregon company that provides access to interpreters who speak 150 languages.

"The quality difference for the patients is substantial," said Richard Fitzpatrick, chief executive of the Columbus company. "Not having to wait allows the doctors and nurses to do what they do."

Brooks said she has seen a difference in the emergency room.

"If you're in a trauma, you don't want to wait 20 to 30 minutes for an interpreter," she said. "You need to know their symptoms right now."

Language Access Network provides translators of Spanish, Somali and American sign language 24 hours a day.

Habiba Egal speaks Italian and several Somali dialects. Before working for Language Access Network, she translated for a local agency that sent her from hospital to hospital.

It was not unusual for her to arrive an hour after being called.

"Here, it is one click away," Egal said. "As soon as they call, I'm here."

OSU Medical Center and University Hospitals East each has a portable unit in its emergency department. Doctors and nurses rely on staff translators and outside agencies in other areas of the hospitals. The hospital system spends about $1 million a year for interpretation services.

David Crawford, spokesman for OSU Medical Center, said officials don't know how much will be saved on video translation because it is a pilot program. In December, 49 emergency patients required video translators at a cost of $2,990.

Under the old system, the meter started running as soon as the hospital made the call.

With video translation, hospitals pay less than $2 a minute and pay only for the minutes they use, Fitzpatrick said.

OSU plans to expand the technology to other parts of the medical center, including labor and delivery, the rehabilitation clinic and the ophthalmology department, said Richard Potts, director of customer service.

OSU said it will continue to use bedside translators as well.

To protect patient privacy, the camera on the patients' end can be covered, and translators are bound by privacy rules.

Andrew Panos, president of Language Access Network, said one of the most difficult aspects is not technical, but rather how to translate medical jargon.

"A doctor may request a CAT scan and the direct translation may be taking a cat and rubbing it on their body," Panos said. "An MRI is not something in Somali."

Currently, OSU Medical Center is the only central Ohio hospital system to use the new service.

The three other local hospital systems -- OhioHealth, Mount Carmel Health System and Children's Hospital -- have staff translators and most use translation agencies. Officials at Mount Carmel and OhioHealth said they are looking at similar video-conferencing technology.

OSU, OhioHealth and Mount Carmel have a Web site where people who speak foreign languages can learn about their medical care at www.healthinfotranslations.com.

Children's Hospital tried Language Access Network's system but decided to stay with staff translators and agencies, said Mary Jane Gerhardstein, director of case management at Children's.

She said translators offer more to patients and families than someone on a computer screen.

"If a family needs to go to the Westside Close to Home clinic, the interpreter can actually give them directions because she knows our system," she said. "It's adding a little extra."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

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Source: The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

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