News on 06 May 2008 11:49:09

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Language Matters

Providing Qualified Language Services in Michigan

Recognizing the lack of awareness is a key problem, Jinny Bromberg, president of Bromberg & Associates Translation Agency, is working on the forefront of the linguistic industry, providing training to its interpreters and speaking often to healthcare, legal and business communities as well as lawmakers on the this topic.

“Interpreters are trained to lend a voice, which makes it difficult to break the mold and speak on your own behalf,” said Jinny Bromberg, while presenting to the Oakland Healthcare Alliance. She spoke with eloquence about the importance of qualified language access in healthcare and the profound consequences of not taking this matter seriously.

Participants welcomed the presentation with interest and recognized the general lack of awareness about the subject of language access and shortage of qualified interpreters in Michigan. Currently, Michigan has only 52 state certified interpreters in 5 languages, compared to Washington State, which has 222 certified interpreters in 12 languages.

At the same time, Michigan has 849,070 residents who speak a language other than English at home while Washington State has 994,169. It’s easy to see that Washington has more than four times the number of certified interpreters that Michigan does, while the number of residents that may require the language services in Washington is very similar to that of Michigan, indicating severe shortage of certified interpreters in our homestate.

The costs of non-compliance includes those associated with legal suits and malpractice claims brought against providers and others who fail to ensure that the patient understands necessary treatment. While Michigan has not had any major lawsuits due to lack of competent language services being provider to its LEP patients and defendants, many states have not been so lucky.

According to an article in Medical Economics doctors and paramedics in Florida misdiagnosed a Spanish-speaking patient’s stroke, resulting in him becoming a paraplegic. Crucial to the case was the use of the Spanish word “intoxicado” – without an interpreter, the doctors and paramedics believed the patient’s mother and girlfriend meant the patient was “intoxicated” rather than their intended meaning of “nauseous." The patient was awarded $71 million as a result of this tragic “misunderstanding”.

In California, a 51-year old mother of seven came to America as a refugee from Laos. She was diagnosed with a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis that required long-term therapy. But Mrs. Souvannarath ceased taking the medication because the side effects led her to believe the drugs were going to kill her. County health officials could not explain the need for treatment and a Lao interpreter was never provided. They jailed Mrs. Souvannarath for failing to take her medications.

To make matters worse, at the jail, an officer who did not speak Lao incorrectly interpreted for her. She thought he asked if she was afraid of dying so she said “yes”, but he had actually asked if she was thinking of killing herself. Her “yes” led the jail to place her on a suicide watch. She was jailed for ten months without a proper court order. Both the trauma to Mrs. Souvannarath and her family, as well as the resulting payment to her of $1.2 million, could have been easily avoided had an interpreter been provided.

Don’t wait for a legal issue to arise in your organization. Securing the assistance of a experienced language service provider now, will help to avoid any concerns coming up in the future. To request a presentation for your group, visit the company website www.bromberg-translation-services.com or call (313) 871-0080 to set-up an appointment.

Bromberg & Associates Translation Agency is a full-range language service provider, DBE and WBE certified business, and GSA Federal Supply Schedule Award holder. The services offered cover all areas of the language industry: translation; interpretation (consecutive and simultaneous); web site translation and localization; multilingual desktop publishing and video production; language training; cultural training; interpreter training and performance evaluation. The company works with over 60 languages locally and 150 languages worldwide.