Capital Region hospitals overcome language barriers by using special telephones to connect patients and their medical providers with an off-site language interpreter. In 2009, local hospitals called on telephone interpreters more than 5,500 times.

Soon, there will be a new option in town.

A nonprofit group that trains interpreters opened an office in Albany last month and hopes to build a cadre of medical interpreters who will be available for on-site and in-person language interpretation. Professional on-site interpreters are the gold standard, said Dina Refki, executive director of the Center for Women in Government and Civil Society at the University at Albany.

“When you don’t have effective communication between the patient and provider, you have all sorts of problems,” said Refki. “You have errors in the diagnosis, you have costly and unnecessary use of diagnostic tests, patient dissatisfaction and medical liability when errors are made.”

More than 22,000 people with limited English skills live in the four counties in the Capital Region, according to census data. The most common foreign language is Spanish, but there are many requests for Burmese, Russian and Arabic.

New York hospitals are not reimbursed for language services at this time, but Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, chairman of the Assembly’s health committee, has submitted a bill that would provide Medicaid reimbursement for interpretation. Read more.

See: Times Union