Healthcare and Medical Interpreter Service

Healthcare / Medical Translation Overview

Many limited English-speaking people admit they wait for an emergency to seek medical care.

Why? Because they fear a situation where they cannot clearly communicate… and be understood.

Today’s top health care providers aren’t waiting for an emergency to care for limited English speaking patients.

You Should Call Interpreter.com Too. Here’s why:
  • Quality – You can expect the most professional, highly trained, Certified Medical Interpreters to serve you and your patients.
  • Reliability – You’ll enjoy quick, easy access to professional, culturally sensitive interpreters 24 hours a day, every day. Clear, accurate communication is crucial to responsive care of your patients.
  • Cost Effective – Using our professional, easily accessible interpreters results in more appropriate, effective care and more accurate diagnosis… fewer urgent care situations and reduction in unnecessary testing… clearer understanding of prognosis and lower costs of treatment.
  • Value of Service – Interpreter.com interpreters delivers more than over-the-phone interpretaton. They undergo rigorous screening, testing and training, including learning specialized medical terminology and procedures, to ensure that you receive clear, concise, accurate communication during each session. We provide a robust program designed to support you in complying with legal mandates, regulatory guidelines and risk management issues as well as a full array of specialized tools – all part of the service!
  • Confidential – Supporting risk management to secure the privacy and confidentiality of patient information, and regulatory compliance to meet these requirements:

  • Affordabile – You pay only for the time you use – no minimums – easier and more cost effective than waiting for on-site interpreters.

Frequently Asked Questions

Through extensive empirical studies and surveys, Interpreter.com developed a comprehensive multi-faceted certification program, one of whose components is the certification exam. The exam was validated by Holly Mikkelson, Associate Professor of Translation and Interpretation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and nationally recognized expert in interpreter training, testing and certification; Dr. Paul Hanges, a psychometrician from the University of Maryland who specializes in test design; and medical professionals and staff interpreters from our health care clients who validated the tests and provided feedback.

The interpreters who are eligible for the certification process have been interpreting medical calls for at least six months after successfully passing the initial testing. The interpreters have interpreted an average of 500 minutes of medical assignments. The program is comprised of six components, all of which must be satisfied for an interpreter to be deemed certified. Those components are:

  • Interpreter Skills Assessment. An initial screening exam tests the ability to accurately interpret messages across language and culture.
  • New Hire Orientation Program. This covers, among other things, interpreting methods and procedures; customer service standards; Professional Code of Ethics, which addresses confidentiality, impartiality, accuracy and completeness; and other professional standards and protocols for healthcare.
  • Service Observation. Senior Language Specialists listen to live calls and provide interpreters feedback on their performance, both in English and in the target language.
  • Voice of the Customer. Direct feedback from customers ensures that the interpreter is meeting client requirements.
  • Healthcare Specific Training. Interpreters must successfully complete training developed in partnership with nationally recognized subject-matter experts.
  • Healthcare-Specific Testing. Interpreters must pass an interpretation exam specifically designed for the healthcare industry.

Our Quality Assurance program includes periodic random monitoring transparent to the interpreter. Feedback is immediately provided to the interpreter. Results of the service observations are tracked to ensure that performance is above standard. In order to retain certification, an interpreter must score at or above standard on all the performance criteria evaluated by a staff Senior Language Specialist or a Quality Specialist.

We also have a customer feedback mechanism called Voice of the Customer. We use the data from this program to provide coaching, determine training and monitoring needs of interpreters, and to improve the interpretation services to meet our customers' needs.

Yes. If you have the capability of monitoring calls, you will be able to monitor the exchange with our certified medical interpreter.

We currently certify 22 languages for medical interpreting. They were chosen based on the fact that they are the most highly requested languages in the healthcare industry and represent over 95% of our customer demand.

Current Languages: Arabic, Bosnian, Cantonese, Croatian, Farsi, French, German, Haitian Creole, Hmong, Italian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.

No. There are associations for medical interpreters, but since there is no national program to certify medical interpreters, there are no national organizations for medically certified interpreters.
How is it different? The certification program provides healthcare interpreting testing and training beyond simple linguistic ability. The documented accreditation program of the ATA applies only to translators of written documents, not spoken language interpreters.
Yes, there are certifications in the Court and Insurance industries, as well, which follow the same parameters as for the Healthcare industries. By offering certification in these three industries, Interpreter.com further substantiates its commitment to ensure the high quality of the interpreting services that its interpreters provide to clients.

Easy To Use!

A professional interpreter can be hard to find. Interpreter.com will provide one for you with one convenient phone call.

Pinless Dialing

No need to dial long numbers when you have pinless dialing

Mobile App

We have mobile apps on iTunes to be make it even more convient

Use Any Phone

Use any phone such as offices, cell phones, pay phones, and more

On Demand 24/7

Our interpreters are available on demand around the clock, 24/7

Within Seconds

Connect to a live interpreter within seconds. No long waits

Global Accessibility

Access our interpreter from anywhere in the world

Code of Ethics

Confidentiality between Interpreter and Client.

Any Interpreter's sole responsibility is interpreting. During the course of interpreting, he or she will refrain from giving advice, expressing any personal opinions, or doing anything else that might be considered an activity other than interpreting. Every U.S. Interpreter agrees to follow the spirit and letter of this Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct.