With over 47 million residents in the U.S. whose primary
language isn't English it stands to reason that all hospitals and healthcare
clinics will encounter multilingual patients. Increasing state and federal
requirements for communicating with limited English speakers have challenged
hospital administrators to find cost-effective solutions.
Among those solutions are technologies that offer speech-to-speech
and text-to-text communication from one language to another, said Jonathan
Litchman, senior vice president, Science Applications International Corporation
(SAIC). SAIC produces Omnifluent Health, a linguistics translation program
integrated with automatic speech recognition technology. "Multilingual
communication solutions (have) a huge impact on the healthcare industry,” he
said. “Not only does it remove the language barrier between patients and their
physicians, it also reduces the cost of medical interpretation and time
associated with it, while increasing productivity and accuracy."
Litchman outlined five benefits translation technology has
for healthcare.
1. Reduced costs
Healthcare translation technology can significantly reduce
costs for hospitals and providers in their interpretation needs, while also
boosting productivity. "This sort of technology is a low-hanging fruit
CFOs and senior admins hardly recognize," Litchman said. "That cost
saving can be leveraged to be used for more critical, clinical applications
that are much more sensitive to cost cutting."
2. Reduced administrative and staff burden
Some healthcare organizations have a limited number of
people available for interpretation, especially on an immediate basis. "The
wait time for interpreters can sometimes be upwards to 25 minutes,"
Litchman said. Speech-to-speech technology can solve this the wait time
problem, which places less of a burden on staff while increasing patient
throughput. "That level of healthcare productivity is really a goal for
most hospital administrations. It's something that's highly sought after:
reduce costs of translation and save money? That hits a benefit twice."
3. Increased quality and accuracy
Accuracy can be a major problem when it comes to
translation and interpretation. "Usually the interpreters aren't the ones
also filling out the paperwork. It's important to make sure that what was said
in one language is accurately being reflected in another language," said
Litchman. Inaccuracy can have significant implications on insurance
reimbursement, billing, and healthcare record management. "As a patient
and physician are sitting side-by-side having a conversation that's being
recorded in both languages on a screen, they can see if there's a mistake or if
something needs clarification. There's no wait time: immediate corrections can
be made with people involved."
4. Mobility
Another benefit of healthcare translation technology is
its mobility. Consider the back-up hospitals can face at an emergency
department admissions desk due to lack of available interpreters. Having a
translation product brought to the ER when needed can reduce wait times for
patients. Instead of having to wait for an interpreter to be found, the
technology is already available in the hospital. “It would increase the quality
of patient care, throughput, and overall healthcare experience, which means
patient satisfaction goes way up," said Litchman.
5. Clinical applications
Technology like this isn't just beneficial for the
administrative side of hospital life; it also makes a big difference on the
clinical side, too. "You have three people in a conversation - the person
speaking the foreign language, an interpreter and the physician. It seems like
communication should flow freely and evenly in a situation like this, but great
nuances can be missed," Litchman said. Having two records in front of a
physician, one in the patient's language and a translated version, allows medical
practitioners to see whether the questions they're asking are truly being
understood by both the patient and the interpreter. "This technology
allows us to capture the spirit and intent of a physician’s effort to
communicate with a patient while avoiding the game of 'Telephone,'" said
Litchman. "The message isn't going to get lost along the way."
Source: healthcarefinancenews
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