Attention: Patient Care and Patient Relations Professionals; Telecommunications; IT; Multicultural Liaisons; Compliance Officers; physicians and all healthcare providers interested in ensuring their facilities comply with state mandates while improving the quality of care by overcoming language and cultural barriers.

If you missed January's Webinars, we've got good news.

Join us February 13th for another live, online Web-based demonstration of the Language LineŽ HealthPort system.

• A presentation by, Charles Lee, MD, Founder & President Polyglot Systems Inc.;
• Scenarios of how the system can increase efficiency and reduce costs during patient registration;
• Accessing valuable cultural information regarding traditions, religion, dietary restrictions, medicinal practices, spiritual and cultural issues toward death; and,
• How to communicate verbally and print in-language discharge, follow up treatment and medication information for limited English proficient patients.

Space is limited to just 25 participants, so please register ASAP, and no later than Friday, February 8th, by writing to healthletter@languageline.com

Sponsored by Language Line Healthcare Services

With quality language access services, hospitals can translate a civil right into a financial safeguard.

by Jeanette Anders, Health Care Business Manager, Language Line Services.

Each time the doors of a hospital open, a rapidly diversifying world rushes in, bringing with it new complications - medical, social, financial and legal.

Often, this new world manages to find its way first to the emergency room, turning an already overwhelmed front-line triage center into a melting pot of once unrelated languages and cultures.

Communicating with this changing population is becoming increasingly costly.

Failing to communicate properly, however, is proving even more expensive. The fact is, when it comes to meeting the multiple objectives of caring for patients, protecting the bottom line, and complying with the law, the great challenge presented by our new multilingual society can be met with one clear solution: a formal language access program.

Read more >>

CHIA Conference Dates Announced

From Grassroots to Redwoods, California Healthcare Interpreting Association's 8th Annual Conference, is set for April 11-12, 2008 at the Holiday Inn Costa Mesa.

Join health care providers, health plans, interpreters, policy makers, advocates, language service providers and stakeholders for an informative, interactive and educational session. Visit www.chiaonline.org

Low Literacy Language Materials Available Through the Minnesota Literacy Council

Developed with a grant from the Minnesota Department of Children Families and Learning under the supervision of the Minnesota Literacy Council, these interactive health literacy exercises are available for use online or to print out with non-native speakers and with low level literacy students.

These materials, created by Charles LaRue, and translated versions in several languages, are available here.

They allow limited English speakers with low literacy practice in 3 areas: Understanding food and reading a nutrition label, understanding basic information about diabetes and basic information about high blood pressure. They have introductions spoken and printable in English, Arabic, Hmong, Somali and Spanish.

HIV/AIDS and Asian Americans

The Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, in partnership with the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD), recently released "Breaking Through The Silence: Key Issues and Recommendations to Address HIV/AIDS Among Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in the United States."

This document is intended as a policy tool, primarily targeted to health department staff to sustain or increase HIV prevention efforts for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities.

You can access the document online here.

Southwest Washington Medical Center Improves Deaf Patient Experience With Video Interpreting Service

MONTEREY, CA - (January 21, 2008) - Southwest Washington Medical Center has implemented a language access program designed to improve the patient experience for those using American Sign Language (ASL).

Following the success of a pilot video interpreting program at the hospital's Memorial Urgent Care Center, Southwest Washington has permanently implemented the Language LineŽ Video Interpreting Service by Language Line Services, providing quick connection to a live, certified ASL interpreter through a portable video monitor.

"The pilot program at the Urgent Care Center reduced our overall on-site interpreting costs and improved the patient care experience," said Ken Cole, Southwest Washington Medical Center spokesperson. "Through Language Line Video Interpreting Service we are now able to provide a service we once struggled with and improve the care we give to ASL patients, ensuring them equal access to privacy and care."

Read more >>

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