Hospitals' need for low-cost language interpreters on the rise
With a growing population of diverse patients, hospitals and health systems increasingly must address language barriers between non-English-speaking patients and providers, and sometimes must do so on stretched budgets.
Hospitals, clinics and private practitioners typically pay high costs for interpretation services, according to the New Haven Independent. For example, Hartford Hospital paid $85,000 in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, up from $70,000 in 2008-2009. And Yale-New Haven Hospital, which employs 14 full-time interpreters, spends more than $1 million on such services.
Read More »