There are many impressive numbers that go along with Northwell Health's Petrocelli Advanced Surgical Pavilion at North Shore University Hospital.
The achievement is soul-stirring. And yet we think there is another number that tops them all: 200. This is the number of languages spoken in New York.
And Northwell Health is prepared to offer care to every person who comes through the pavilion’s doors, regardless of language, culture, or physical ability.
LanguageLine is honored to be Northwell’s language-access partner. As the pavilion has developed, we have had the privilege of collaborating with Northwell on a bold mandate for the facility: to create the world’s most innovative approach to equitable healthcare.
When the Petrocelli Advanced Surgical Pavilion at North Shore University Hospital opens its doors, patients will have on-demand, one-touch access to professional interpretation in more than 240 languages, with the power of 20,000 LanguageLine Certified linguists at their fingertips. This service will be available within seconds, with access 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Language access will be featured at every one of the pavilion’s key touchpoints, including at the patient’s bedside. Through our partnership with eVideon, the LanguageLine app will be installed on bedside tablets, giving patients and caregivers instant access to an interpreter whenever one is needed.
The bedside tablets provide increased autonomy for patients during their stay by bringing the convenience of self-service to the bedside. In addition to language access, they also provide simplified access to meal ordering, educational content, entertainment, and ancillary hospital services.
The road to greater health equity and literacy is paved with innovation, and it is never finished. In fact, this is just the beginning. The aim is to create a language-access system that is as diverse as the patients for which Northwell cares.
We have already added video interpretation in Northwell’s fleet of ambulances. Next we will embed on-demand interpretation in its Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. We are also working to implement real-time translation in the system’s virtual chat.
All these efforts aim to enhance the experience for limited-English speakers as well as the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. This level of language access also creates greater operational efficiencies for the hospital itself so its medical team can focus on the tasks it does best: deliver world-class care to the world’s most diverse patient community.
LanguageLine is proud to be an essential partner in managing and growing a modern healthcare organization that welcomes all people.
Through our collaboration with Northwell Health, we are one step closer to a world in which language and cultural barriers no longer exist. Every patient entering the new pavilion will have an equal ability to share and comprehend information related to their health. And every caregiver will understand not just what their patient says, but what they mean.
To learn more, we invite you to visit www.LanguageLine.com