Leader in over-the-phone medical interpretation raises the standard of face-to-face interpreting with new service, brings consistent quality in language access to healthcare providers and new jobs to California
Language Line Services, the leading provider of interpretation services, announced today the introduction of Language Line® Face-to-Face Interpretation Service in 10 major markets across southern and northern California, including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose.
Language Line® Face-to-Face Interpretation Service will initially be available in nine of the most requested languages in California: Armenian, Cantonese, Farsi, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese.
The on-site interpretation service offers healthcare providers a new option for improving communications with their multilingual patients and their families, and complements the company’s broad suite of language access tools ranging from over-the-phone and video interpretation, to language tracking, interpreter training/certification and document translation.
“Our Face-to-Face Interpretation Service is an important solution for healthcare providers who need to communicate with limited-English speakers in situations requiring the extra human interaction of on-site interpreting, ” said Louis Provenzano, Language Line Services’ President and Chief Operating Officer. “While over-the-phone interpretation offers a fast response when urgent or unexpected language barriers arise, on-site interpretation can be a preferred choice for scheduled or initial patient appointments, psychiatric evaluations, group sessions and the like. Regardless of which service is used, Language Line Services’ clients have access to the best trained staff of qualified medical interpreters.”
Healthcare providers rely on interpreters to communicate with limited-English speaking patients along all steps of the patient lifecycle, from admission and diagnosis to treatment and discharge. Providers need consistency in the quality of interpretation, whether it’s provided on-site or remotely, to ensure the quality of care being delivered. With Language Line Services expansion into on-site interpretation, its clients in California can now obtain that consistency in the level of quality and service they’ve come to expect from a company whose corporate culture emphasizes training, testing and on-going education, with the added benefit of cost-savings that come with centralized reporting and administrative services.
According to Provenzano, Language Line Services’ medical interpreters are already preparing for the exams recently launched by the National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters, in order to achieve the designation of Certified Medical Interpreter (CMI), the first industry standard of its kind. The company expects all its medical interpreters to pursue a CMI designation. Furthermore, Language Line Services anticipates the demand for qualified on-site medical interpreters will result in the expansion of its California-based workforce over the coming months.
“Having a single source for all our interpretation needs that is both consistent and reliable helps us ensure access to quality care for our population of limited-English speaking members,” said Jane Ogle, COO, at Santa Clara Family Health Plan. “And there are times when on-site interpretation is more appropriate, such as when complex and sensitive issues need to be discussed like end-of-life decisions or negative diagnoses. It’s imperative that we have qualified medical interpreters available when we need them.”
With more than 5,000 professional interpreters on staff – many of whom are specialty trained medical interpreters – Language Line Services is one of the largest private employers of interpreters in the world. Its business model relies on employed interpreters versus contracted interpreters, which gives the company a legal right to test, train and monitor the quality of its interpreters.
“Because our interpreters are employees and not contractors, we can ensure both the quality of our on-site interpreters and the reliability that comes from managing employee schedules,” added Provenzano. “Our size advantage also allows the flexibility to be very responsive and eliminate the constraint of a 24-hour notice for appointment scheduling.”
Language Line Services offers web-based, on-line scheduling of its Face-to-Face Interpretation Service, and interpreters can be scheduled in as few as six hours prior to the assignment with no additional rush charges for certain languages.
“The expansion of Language Line Services to on-site interpretation within California could mean job growth and new career opportunities for in-state medical interpreters,” noted Nancy Zarenda, Founder of the Spanish Language Academy and Board Member of the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “I encourage professional on-site interpreters to explore this exciting possibility.”
Founded in 1982 as an over-the-phone interpretation company, Language Line Services has expanded its offerings over the last 28 years to include video interpretation, document translation, localization services and a variety of language solutions to help businesses, government agencies and healthcare institutions meet the needs of their growing limited-English speaking clients, constituents and patients. The company is headquartered in Monterey, CA, and has offices in Glendale, CA, Portland, OR, Tucson, AZ, and around the globe.
For additional details about Language Line® Face-to-Face Interpretation Service, visit http://www.languageline.com/facetoface or call 1-800-752-6096 option 4.
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SIDE BAR: GROWING LANGUAGE-SUPPORT NEEDS IN CALIFORNIA
- 28% of California residents are foreign-born
- 20% of foreign-born residents in California speak limited-English
- 20% of California residents admit to speaking English less than “very well”
- 39.5% of California residents speak a language other than English at home
Top 10 Languages Spoken by California Residents
- Spanish
- Chinese*
- Tagalog
- Vietnamese
- Korean
- Armenian
- Japanese
- Farsi
- German
- French
Source: US Census; “Chinese” is a combination of Mandarin and Cantonese dialects.
Editor’s Note: Individual city statistics available upon request.
About Language Line Services
Language Line Services, the global leader in telephone interpreting and language solutions, serves clients in government, healthcare, telecommunications, financial services, utilities, insurance and many other industries by quickly connecting them to their customers, patients and sales prospects in more than 170 spoken languages as well as American Sign Language (ASL) and Mexican Sign Language (LSM). Growth of the language interpreting industry has soared with increased immigration and government regulatory policies mandating that organizations provide services to limited-English speakers in their own languages. Language Line Services is recognized as a trusted partner to thousands of public and private organizations throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, providing easy access to the industry’s fastest language interpreting service at highly competitive rates. For more information about Language Line Services’ suite of telephone, on-site and video interpreting, document translation, interpreter training and certification programs, please call (800) 752-6096 or visit www.languageline.com.