New York City is a melting pot of nationalities, cultures, and ethnicities, with residents speaking as many as 800 languages. This makes it the world’s most linguistically diverse city.
“We care for a very large number of Spanish-speaking patients and also many who speak less common foreign languages such as Creole, Jamaican, Italian, Russian, and Mandarin,” said Kerry Donohue, MSN, RN, Manager of patient experience and culture leader at Northwell’s Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital. “For MEETH, language interpretation and translation services are a ‘must have’ to support members of our care team in delivering the best quality healthcare in a timely and efficient manner.”
Upon assuming her role, Donohue identified a need to improve the organization’s process to provide language interpretation services.
In talking with her, Equiva customer success manager, she learned that LanguageLine®’s on-demand interpreting could be added to the Equiva tablet devices currently in use in MEETH pre-op and post-op patient bays.
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The hospital had recently deployed 30 Equiva tablets in these rooms to enhance patient experience, one per patient bay in a wall-mounted basket with an attached security cable.
Donohue says the tablets were previously used to provide entertainment and other services to help minimize anxiety and reduce perceived wait times.
MEETH eventually replaced its cumbersome process to deliver language services to day surgery patients by adding LanguageLine interpretation to its 30 Equiva bedside tablets.
The process to add LanguageLine services to Equiva tablets took “very little time and effort,” Donohue stated. “I spoke with representatives from each organization, they helped craft a plan, and I basically dotted a few i’s and crossed a few t’s. Everything happened within just a few weeks on their backends via cloud-based software.”
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Now, in just a few clicks, patients and clinicians readily access live interpreters via video or audio. “This has been instrumental in helping us improve patient experience and caregiving,” Donohue said.
With the tablet-based LanguageLine offering in place, MEETH staff now spends time previously used for landline phone set-up to focus on other priorities. “In just two touches, real-time language interpretation is available on-demand via video or audio,” Donohue said.
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About LanguageLine
LanguageLine has been the world leader in innovative language-access solutions since 1982. The company sets the global standard for phone, video, and onsite interpreting, as well as translation of the written word. LanguageLine is trusted by more than 30,000 clients to enable communication with the limited English proficient, Deaf, and Hard of Hearing communities. LanguageLine provides the industry’s fastest and most dependable access to more than 35,000 professional linguists in 290-plus languages — 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. No other language-services company supports more healthcare providers than LanguageLine. Please do not hesitate to contact us.
