East Meadow hospital unveils patient translation system

Looking for a Spanish interpreter Tuesday, Guy Courbois hit a button on a video phone and in seconds was greeted by Mayra Navarrett, a medical translator whose face was beamed in from 800 miles away at a Sinai Health System hospital in Chicago.

That speed and ease of service, said Courbois, vice president of operations for Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, was why the hospital is planning to use video interpreters to help patients who don't speak English.

"We're trying to improve the interpreter service we offer to our patients," Courbois said.

Although NUMC already has six Spanish interpreters on staff, and also subscribes to a phone service that offers interpretation in up to 140 other languages, the video system will blend the immediacy of phone interpretation with the personal connection of a human face, Courbois said.

NUMC's facilities serve many Spanish-speaking patients, with about 70 percent of their 275,000 yearly outpatient center visitors being of Hispanic heritage - though not everyone needs an interpreter.

"When we see body language, it's a real important piece of interpreting," said Ilene Corina, president of patient advocacy group PULSE New York, based in Wantagh.

A patient can dial up the requested language on a video phone and be connected with an interpreter working at one of 20 hospitals across the United States that are part of the system, said Libby Harding, installation director for California-based Paras and Associates Interpreter Systems.

NUMC is the first hospital in the Northeast to offer this system, Harding said. The system uses 15 languages, including Arabic, Russian and American Sign Language.

The high-tech system, where both interpreter and patient can see each other through small cameras mounted on portable phones, can throw people for a loop, Navarrett said.

"I think they're a little weirded-out at first," she said. "But I think it helps."

The importance of face-to-face interpretation is that people are able to pick up on unspoken cues that could be lost in voice-only telephone translation, Courbois said. "There are nuances and cultural differences," he said.

Irma Yulan, an in-house Spanish interpreter for NUMC, said her cultural heritage helped her bond with patients.

"People feel they can relate to you if they feel you come from the same place," she said.

In the next six months, NUMC plans to install about 20 video phones for about $200,000 throughout the hospital and its four community clinics, Courbois said.