The Role of Interpreting Services in Telehealth

Telehealth medicine has rapidly become a more common and important area of the healthcare industry. According to certain studies, telemedicine encounters increased by 766% during the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they have continued to be higher than pre-pandemic levels. In short, since people discovered the practical convenience and effects of telehealth services, they’ve continued to use them even post-pandemic.

However, telehealth services, such as medical consults, videoconferencing calls, and more are only effective and useful to healthcare patients if there’s accurate, comprehensible communication between both sides. When a patient doesn’t speak the same language as their doctor, issues can quickly arise.

Interpreting services have become an important part of telehealth offerings, and for good reason. Today, let’s break down the role of interpreting services in telehealth and explore why you should use Connected Care for your medical facility today.

Language Barriers in Telehealth

Telehealth medical services, including consultations and doctor meet-ups, are important parts of modern medical services. They allow healthcare providers to connect with patients from afar using webcams, microphones, and videoconferencing software like Skype or Zoom.

While remote healthcare services like these are highly convenient and effective, language barriers can impair their practical use. For example, a patient may not speak English very well, so they may not understand what their healthcare provider is saying or what the healthcare provider wants them to do in any given meeting.

According to the University of Pennsylvania, the number of US residents with Limited English Proficiency has increased significantly over the last few decades. Those with Limited English Proficiency now comprise approximately 9% of the US population or 25 million people. 

Clear, accurate communication with patients is vital in any medical context, not just remote health services. After all, if a patient doesn’t understand what medicine to take, the dosage of medication that’s appropriate for their needs, and similar information, they could see serious negative results.

As an example, a patient may take the wrong dosage of medication, leading to a terrible side effect. Alternatively, a patient may simply not trust their doctor, causing them to ignore their healthcare provider’s recommendations or diagnosis.

Given these possibilities, it’s vital to overcome language barriers in telehealth by any means possible.

Role of Interpreting Services

Many healthcare providers, especially those that offer remote healthcare services, now lean on interpreting services to bridge the gap between themselves and their patients.

Professional interpreters are linguistic experts who understand not just what different languages mean in a raw translating way, but who also understand the cultural context behind different languages and words. There are many different telehealth interpreting services available, such as:

• Video interpreting services, where an interpreter sits in on a video meeting between a remote healthcare provider and their patient. The interpreter is in a prime position to provide insights and understanding on behalf of both parties
• Phone interpreting services, in which an interpreter is available on the phone for a phone call between the patient and their healthcare provider
• Chat interpreting services, which rely on textual interpretations of patient and healthcare provider responses and statements

Each of these interpreting services can be highly valuable and applied to different telehealth situations.

As an example, if a patient needs to speak to a healthcare provider during a medical consult, video interpretation could be just the ticket. The interpreter can sit in on the meeting and make sure that both the healthcare provider and their patient fully understand what the other one says and what they need.

Trained interpreters, such as those employed by Connected Care, offer several important benefits to healthcare facilities like yours. These advantages include:

• Improve accuracy, both for you and for your patients. Interpreters can ensure that you fully understand the symptoms of your patients and that they understand your recommendations
• Cultural competence. With the assistance of our healthcare interpreters, you’ll be able to recognize and respond to cultural elements in conversations with patients who belong to different cultures than you
• Higher patient satisfaction. Interpreting services in telehealth oftentimes lead to greater patient satisfaction, which is positively correlated with better patient outcomes and greater patient compliance with doctor recommendations

Enhancing Patient Care

Perhaps the most important benefit of using interpreting services in telehealth medical services is greater patient care outcomes.

Medical professionals are always focused on maximizing patient care. A treatment or healthcare plan is only as good as it improves patient wellness. Interpretation provided by skilled linguists offers many different elements to a successful telehealth conference or meeting, such as:

• Interpreters can facilitate accurate medical history taking. When you need to take the medical history of a patient who doesn’t speak English, you can rely on medical interpreters to make sure you fully understand that patient’s previous symptoms, family history of related illnesses or conditions, etc.
• Interpreters can also facilitate accurate diagnosis relaying. Say that you come up with a treatment plan for one of your patients who doesn’t speak English. The treatment plan will only work if that patient follows it to the letter. With a knowledgeable interpreter working on your side, you can rest assured that the patient will know exactly what you need them to do
• Interpreters will also assist with medication management. It can be tough for those who speak a different language from you to understand how much medicine they need to take and which medication brands are best suited for their health goals. An interpretation expert can provide services ensuring that your patients manage and track their medication successfully, as well as explain progress updates from those patients to you

These benefits aren’t just speculative or hypothetical. Indeed, several studies have indicated positive developments after bringing professional healthcare interpreters to medical contexts and situations. Specifically, major improvements were seen in:

• Patient communication, both in terms of errors in communication and patient medical information comprehension
• Utilization of available medical resources, both in general and in terms of accuracy (e.g., patients use medical resources properly, such as medication, more often when they have access to an interpreter to facilitate accurate communication)
• Clinical outcomes
• Satisfaction with care

Over the last several years, Connected Care by The Language Doctors has helped medical facilities, including small clinics and private practices and much larger organizations like hospitals, provide stellar telehealth services to their patients.

Some patients had difficulty navigating through patient portals. In this way, they also had difficulty accessing their medical histories, the treatment plans, and much more. Through the assistance of Connected Care’s interpreters, these patients were able to better understand what the doctors needed from them, as well as follow treatment plans more successfully and accurately.

The result? Better patient outcomes and greater telehealth satisfaction overall. 

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Even though interpreting services can be highly effective in telehealth contexts, it’s important to recognize the inherent legal and ethical obligations and potential security concerns inherent in them.

For example, many medical personnel or facilities may be concerned about telehealth interpreting services getting access to sensitive patient data. When a patient uses an interpreter to speak of their symptoms and medical history, the interpreter learns that information just the same as the patient’s health care provider.

To that end, the best on-demand interpreting services, such as Connected Care, are HIPAA-compliant. To ensure compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, The Language Doctors trains each of its interpreters to know how to learn, organize, and not keep sensitive patient information.

Thanks to this compliance, medical facilities such as yours can use Connected Care without worrying about accidentally violating patient confidentiality or information protocols through the use of a third party. In this way, medical facilities and telehealth services can provide ever better patient care without negating these important policies.

Furthermore, The Language Doctors always takes feedback and adjusts our training requirements for new healthcare interpreters and language experts. We’re dedicated to being legally and ethically compliant with all necessary policies. That way, we can better assist medical facilities just like yours.

Choosing the Right Interpreting Service Provider

To make your telehealth medical services as effective and satisfying as possible, you must pick the right interpreting service provider, not just the first interpreter you find.

The best telehealth interpreting service providers are:

• Reputable. They already have a good history of success and have worked with similar businesses or facilities to your own. In this way, you’ll know that they already understand what is expected of them and have a good set of healthcare interpreters on staff
• Accessible. Many of the best interpreting services utilize on-demand platforms so medical healthcare providers, such as your own practice, can get interpreting services ASAP when needed. This is important because medical emergencies can happen at any time of day
• Cost-effective. Given the fact that in-person interpreters can charge up to $200 per hour or more, it’s important to make sure that interpreting services are affordable for your practice
• Designed with technology that is compatible with your own healthcare IT infrastructure

Fortunately, Connected Care fulfills all of these criteria. As an example, we’ve already worked with many other healthcare providers to excellent results. We have a reputation for success, and it’s hard-earned.

Furthermore, we offer an on-demand interpreting services platform. Connected Care can be used at any time and by any of your staff members when needed, day or night. In fact, our team of knowledgeable medical interpreters is available 24/7.

That’s not all. We offer a pay-as-you-go model, meaning you don’t have to sign up for a certain minimum amount of interpreting hours or services. You just pay for what you need, enabling your medical facility to funnel its limited budget where it will bring the best benefit to your patients.

Our technology is also highly flexible and adaptable. We can integrate with your existing IT infrastructure in no time. We’ve designed our service to work for telehealth and other video conferences from top to bottom.

Contact The Language Doctors Today

Overall, on-demand interpreting platforms like Connected Care from The Language Doctors are the ideal means to ensure every telehealth service you offer works for each patient in your care. With our team of knowledgeable linguistic specialists at your beck and call, you’ll be able to provide stellar medical care to everyone who needs it.

If you’re considering incorporating our professional telehealth interpreting services into your telehealth practices, don’t wait. Contact us today and enjoy a free demo of our platform to see exactly how it works and how it could benefit your practice.