Medical interpreters help patients avoid dangerous miscomm

• Bangulzai

  14 Jun 09, 21:51

   

  Medical interpreters help foreign patients avoid dangerous miscommunication

  

  
  

  Mieko Shikayama, right, interprets a doctor's explanation of the results of an ultrasound exam on Lidjane Shimabukuro, center, at a hospital in Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture. (Mainichi)

  
  

  At hospitals and clinics, communicating the names of illnesses, explaining the consent form for an operation, and other medical minutia can be a challenge for staff, even when talking to a Japanese patient. When the patient is a foreigner, the language barrier can magnify those challenges, which is where medical interpreters come in.

  Medical interpreters aim to explain medical workers' intentions as precisely as possible to patients, and in turn relate the patients' thoughts clearly to Japanese doctors and nurses. In hospitals, where life and death decisions are made by medical staff every day, these interpreters have a great role to play in the welfare of foreign patients.

  "Look up, please," and "We're going to apply this gel," translates certified foreigner supporter Mieko Shikayama, 65, for Brazilian patient Lidjane Shimabukuro during an ultrasound exam of her thyroid. She stays close to Shimabukuro, holding her hand as she relays the ultrasound technician's directions in Portuguese.

  "Until now, even if I was in pain I'd just bear it," says Shimabukuro, who until recently had had to hire a translator for medical checks out of her own pocket. "There were no translators at the hospital, so I often couldn't go. This is really amazing," she enthuses regarding the medical translation offered here at Izumisano Municipal Hospital in Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture.

  "Even if you speak a little Japanese, you can't understand difficult words like disease names or terms used in test results," says Shimabukuro's husband. "It's such a relief that we can also say what we want to the doctors clearly."

  

  Izabel Arocha (Mainichi)

  
  

  The hospital is close to Kansai International Airport, and foreigners brought in on emergencies are not uncommon. Thus, in fiscal 2006 the hospital established an international outpatient facility, providing medical translation in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese. The facility provides examinations by appointment, and medical interpreters and certified foreigner supporters -- who aim to become medical interpreters -- are on standby from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

  The service is provided free of charge, and the hospital has been receiving visits from patients even from outside the prefecture as word of the interpreters spreads. The number of times the service has been used has been rising, from 88 times in fiscal 2006 to 427 times in fiscal 2008.

  "There are different ways of thinking about medical care, depending on one's culture and religion," says the hospital's head of health management Kaori Minamitani, who also does interpreting in Spanish and Portuguese. "Medical interpreting is very important in preventing problems."

  There are also entire regions in Japan that dispatch interpreters to medical facilities with the support of non-profit organizations (NPO). For example, local bodies in Kanagawa Prefecture have taken on the expense of providing interpreters, provided by the NPO Multi-language Information Center (MIC). MIC is cooperating with 17 medical institutions in the prefecture and, including instances when the NPO has decided independently to dispatched interpreters, their services were used 3,561 times last fiscal year. Furthermore, the NPO Center for Multicultural Information and Assistance Kyoto provides interpreting services to four hospitals in that city.

  Unfortunately, such services are not available everywhere in the country. Medical institutions are not duty-bound to provide interpreting services, and the central government has no system in place to take on the cost of interpreters as a part of medical expenses. Additionally, the ability of the interpreters varies, and the question of compensation in cases where a mistranslation causes serious problems remains, leading many institutions to hesitate to provide interpreters.

  "Everyone has the right to an equal level of medical care," says Izumisano hospital assistant director Mamoru Ito. "I hope that both medical institutions and the government will work toward creating a system where foreigners can seek care with peace of mind," he concludes.

  ---

  The Mainichi also spoke to Izabel Arocha, president of the International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA) -- an organization affiliated with some 2,000 medical interpreters in 15 countries -- concerning the importance of medical interpreters.

  "When most people think of interpreting, they think about conference interpreting or business interpreting. They don't usually think about medical interpreting. But that is the area where the most interpreters are needed all around the world. The demand for this new specialization is much greater than the supply of interpreters who are educated and qualified in (the medical) setting. These are situations where a miscommunication or misinterpretation could be the difference between life and death.

  "We're working hard now to standardize interpreter quality through certification... and improving the working conditions of (qualified) interpreters, so that they are able to stay in the field. This is difficult because there are many, many interpreters.

  "(For example,) there are about 15,000-20,000 interpreters in the U.S. working in the medical field, and their qualifications are diverse. Some of them are highly qualified, highly-educated. Some have PhDs and they have a lot of training in medical interpreting. And some are... without enough English knowledge, and without enough training, because the need is so great. (However,) we're very close to launching a national certification system (in the U.S.), the first one in the world that is specifically for medical interpreting.

  "(Medical interpreting) is not new in Japan (but) you have to... increase awareness of this issue. (However,) I think Japan is going in the right direction. What I admire about Japanese is that they respect and value education... and that is really key. I think it will make Japan... leap ahead.

  "Health care is a right. If you want to have health care, you need to communicate with the doctors, so communication is a right as well."

  (Mainichi Japan) June 13, 2009

   

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