ARTICLES

Featured Articles

Frequently Asked Questions--Joint Commission Language Services Requirements: These questions are frequently asked by our healthcare customers regarding our healthcare interpreting services and address specific Joint Commission standards and areas in which language services could significantly impact quality of care and patient safety.

New Joint Commission Standards Related to Communication, Cindy Roat, independent industry consultant: Learn about the Joint Commission's new communication standards and analyze what they could mean for your healthcare organization. The Joint Commission will enforce these new standards beginning July 1, 2012, and failure to comply with the standards could affect your organization's accreditation.

Telephone Interpreting: Improving Healthcare Outcomes and the Bottom Line, Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, February 2012: Learn why using interpreters in an urgent care setting (or any healthcare setting) makes good legal, ethical, and economic sense, and further understand the growing need for language interpreting services.

Tips for Working with Language Interpreters Over the Phone: Through our vast experience and industry involvement, we have developed a number of best practices for working with language interpreters over the phone. We invite you to consider these recommendations, and to share them with team members who utilize OPI services to optimize call efficiency and enhance outcomes.

• Healthcare and Social Services
• Business and Government

Article Series

Our team members include experts in the language access services community. The following four-part article series was written in September 2011 by one of our experienced professionals.

• Language Barriers in Health Care 
• Using Friends and Family to Interpret

• Making the Most Out of Bilingual Staff
• Analyzing Four Factors to Develop an LEP Plan

Outside Articles

These articles represent a variety of excellent resources about language access and interpretation in health care. All are provided with explicit written permission from the respective owners.

Individual or Organization
Granting Permission

• Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient- and Family-Centered Care: A Roadmap for Hospitals

© The Joint Commission, 2011. www.jointcommission.org

• How to Appeal to the Evidence When Justifying Language Services

• Leading with Reason and Compassion

• Guide to Initial Assessment of Interpreter Qualifications

• Models for the Provision of Language Access in Health Care Settings

• National Code of Ethics for Interpreters in Health Care

• National Standards for Health Care Interpreter Training Programs

• National Standards of Practice for Interpreters in Health Care

• Straight Talk: Model Hospital Policies and Procedures on Language Access

The California Endowment, www.calendow.org

• Talking with Patients: How Hospitals Use Bilingual Clinicians and Staff to Care for Patients with Language Needs

• The Evidence Base for Cultural and Linguistic Competency in Health Care

• The High Costs of Language Barriers in Medical Malpractice

• What's in a Word? A Guide to Understanding Interpreting and Translation in Health Care