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Mercy Hospital, Ronald McDonald House of Chicago Communicate With Diverse Mix of Patients and Families

Posted on: Thursday, 21 September 2006, 18:01 CDT

Language barriers have been eliminated for non- and limited English speaking patients at Mercy Hospital & Medical Center, as well as for families staying at the three Houses operated by the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana (RMHCCNI).

A dual-handset phone allows hospital and House staff to access a trained interpreter in an average of less than 15 seconds. The service allows staff to communicate face-to-face with patients and House guests in more than 150 languages.

CyraCom, the country's premier provider of language services to the health care industry, provides the service to Mercy Hospital. It has donated its ClearLink services to the Chicago Ronald McDonald Houses, where an increasing number of non- and limited English proficient families seek the Houses' service.

"Our role is to help families focus on the health of their child in a comfortable environment at a time when being together matters most," said Doug Porter, CEO of RMHCCNI. "This interpretation service makes the situation less stressful for non-English speaking families and helps House staff make them feel more at home."

The interpretation service, in place throughout Mercy Hospital, continues to be instrumental in enabling the hospital staff to provide quality care to patients.

Spanish is the language most in need of interpretation at Illinois hospitals in 2006, according to CyraCom. Mandarin, Cantonese and Polish follow. U.S. Census data show nearly 14 percent of the Illinois population is foreign-born, and 21.5 percent of the state's population age 5 years and older speaks a language other than English at home.

"You can see in the House guests' faces what a difference being able to communicate quickly and clearly makes," said CyraCom CEO Michael Greenbaum. "We welcome being able to provide the link that patients' families need while their children are hospitalized in the Chicago area."

Since 1977, RMHCCNI has served nearly 50,000 families. Last year, guests came from 39 countries, including Argentina, Greece, India and Saudi Arabia.

Mercy Hospital, a Catholic teaching hospital, was Chicago's first chartered hospital and enjoys a rich history of providing the area's most advanced medicine.

CyraCom serves more than 900 U.S. hospitals and health care facilities, offering over-the-phone interpretation, document translation, program assessment and interpreter testing and training. For information, see www.cyracom.com.

Source: Business Wire

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