Train registrars as interpreters
While some patient access employees at Cincinnati (OH) Children’s Hospital Medical Center were bilingual, they weren’t qualified to serve as interpreters. Now these employees will be offered training based on Kaiser Permanente’s Qualified Bilingual Staff Model and Program. (See resource at end of article for information.)
“There will be a huge emphasis in allowing individuals to go through this process,” says Ricardo A. Torres, CMI, CFLI, manager of linguistic services for the hospital’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion. “This is one of the biggest goals we have as an organization in fiscal 2013.”
Torres says the organization could see significant benefits as a result of being able to use patient access staff as interpreters, depending on the number of personnel able to pass the screening test and successfully complete the training, “Currently, the cost of all interpreting services is being allocated to the office of Diversity and Inclusion,” he notes.
A vendor (Atlanta-based Alta Language Service) is performing the language proficiency assessments and determining which of these three levels the employee is qualified for:
Level 1: Bilingual staff who has demonstrated enough conversational skills to interact with patients at basic levels. They will receive the Qualified Bilingual Staff eight-hour training.
Level 2: Bilingual staff who has demonstrated a higher level of proficiency in the language in question. They will receive the full Qualified Bilingual Staff 24-hour training, which includes basic introduction to skills and knowledge needed to function as an interpreter, clarifier, mediator, and advocate.
Level 3: These are individuals with much higher command of both languages with knowledge of medical terminology. They will receive the same Qualified Bilingual Service 24-hour training, but their scope of practice would be comparable to a regular spoken interpreter.
“Registrars will probably be doing Level 1, because they won’t be expected to know medical terminology,” says Torres. “Depending on their level of proficiency in the language they speak, they can interact directly with the patient.”
Resource
• Kaiser Permanente developed the Qualified Bilingual Staff (QBS) Model and Program in response to the increasing demand for linguistically and culturally appropriate services for its non-English or limited-English proficient patient populations. The QBS Model and Program provides bilingual employees specialized education and training to maximize their diverse linguistic skills and contribute to improving the overall patient care experience. This Model and Program is available to organizations at no cost. For more information, contact Oscar Lanza, Manager, National Linguistic & Cultural Programs, National Diversity, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA. Phone: (510) 271-6868. Fax: (510) 271-5757. Email: [email protected]. Web: http://kpqbs.org.
While some patient access employees at Cincinnati (OH) Childrens Hospital Medical Center were bilingual, they werent qualified to serve as interpreters. Now these employees will be offered training based on Kaiser Permanentes Qualified Bilingual Staff Model and Program.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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