MiTio Medical Interpreting Course
Errors in medical interpreting for LEPs or Limited English Proficient persons can result in lawsuits against health care providers. Around half of the errors made by medical interpreters fall into the category of omission. It is important to remember that the code of ethics for medical interpreters include interpreting the information accurately and completely.
Self-evaluation and active listening can minimize errors in medical interpreting. Some interpreting errors can even be non-linguistic, like failing to requests for clarification when something is not clear, or failing to tell the other parties when environmental issues like background noise or physical distance prevent the interpreter from hearing properly what the people involved say. Some other errors may arise from cultural differences and failing to request permission when intervening to explain or understand a cultural issue.
Regulatory Standards in the US require healthcare facilities to provide qualified interpreters for their patients, and rule against letting the patient bring a family member or their own interpreter to the session. The US Regulatory Standard Benchmarks are tiered depending on the percentage of LEP population of a specific language in a specific County.
The benefits provided by qualified medical interpreters range from patient and health care provider satisfaction to the reduction of errors. Even though it may sound surprising, professional medical interpreters can improve the rapport between the patient and the provider, basically because the communication between the parties is improved. What is a qualified medical interpreter? A qualified medical interpreter is a professional who has received specific training in medical interpreting in consecutive and simultaneous modes. Medical interpreters are also able to provide sight translations of documents.
One of the training courses for qualified medical interpreters is provided by MiTio.
