The following is a guest article by Kristin Quinlan, CEO at Certified Languages International (CLI)
With 1 in 5 residents speaking a language other than English at home and an expanding diversity of languages spoken in the U.S., language access services are only increasing in importance for healthcare organizations. Many large hospital systems have a team of in-house interpreters, but it can be challenging to manage those resources—hospitals often expend a lot of time and money as interpreters travel from one facility to another or make house calls with traveling nurses.
That’s why a small but growing number of leading-edge healthcare organizations have started to adopt a hybrid model using a virtual interpreter call center to help them efficiently and effectively connect staff and patients with interpreters.
How Virtual Interpreter Call Centers Work
Consider how a typical day unfolds at a large healthcare system that has a team of in-house interpreters and a language services partner. Each morning, two schedulers might assess all the appointments for the day to identify which patients need an interpreter. They start assigning in-house interpreters, but they can only accommodate about 20% of their non-English-speaking patients because they need to leave time for the interpreters to travel between rooms or locations. They also might only employ a small team of interpreters in six of the 120 or more languages spoken by patients in their region. When an in-house interpreter is not available, they rely on their language services partner to connect them with phone or video interpreters.
After adopting a virtual interpreter call center, the in-house interpreters are equipped to service patients virtually via video. Furthermore, a hybrid model will reduce time spent scheduling and traveling while increasing in-house interpreter utilization. The call center platform directs on-demand requests for interpretation first to in-house interpreters. If all those interpreters are busy or an interpreter is required in a language that isn’t covered by in-house staff, the virtual call center automatically directs incoming calls to interpreters provided by their language partner. It’s quick and seamless for the provider as well as for patients and in-house interpreters.
The Benefits of a Hybrid Model with a Virtual Interpreter Call Center
Just as a virtual nursing program leverages a remote team of nurses to help support on-site staff in providing patient care, a virtual interpreter call center leverages a language partner’s remote team of interpreters to provide backup support for a healthcare system’s in-house interpreters. Rather than replacing in-person interpreters, this adds another modality of accessing interpreters to improve language support for patients. But the advantages don’t stop there—by moving to a virtual interpreter call center, your organization can realize a wide variety of benefits that include:
Greater Efficiency
A virtual interpreter call center creates many efficiencies. You don’t have to worry about building out an internal provisioning system, because the virtual call center serves as a one-stop shop that helps you manage all your remote interpreting requests, regardless of whether they’re delivered in-house or via your interpreting partner.
By leveraging a virtual interpreter call center solution to boost utilization of in-house staff when they’re not needed at a patient’s bedside or in a clinic appointment—and reducing or eliminating travel time with a virtual interpreter call system—you can increase efficiency while connecting providers with the in-house interpreters they’re accustomed to working with.
You can also centralize some or all your interpreters, rather than having them working in multiple locations. This hybrid model allows teams to work more efficiently and can help you run your language services department as a whole more consistently.
Cost Savings
Efficiency and centralization of your in-house interpreters go hand in hand with cost savings. With in-house interpreters serving as the first line of defense (both in-person and virtually) and the language services partner serving as remote backup, healthcare systems can reduce their reliance on outside interpreters. The more you connect patients to your own in-house interpreters, the less you’ll spend on services provided by an interpreting partner.
Centralizing in-house resources allows many organizations to reduce the overhead associated with multiple worksites, enabling your in-house interpreters working in one state or region to support your patients seeking care in another. For healthcare systems spread across multiple regions, this can amount to significant savings.
Visibility and Control
Virtual interpreter call center platforms make it easy to generate reports and gain real-time insight into the utilization of in-house interpreters for more effective workforce management.
You also have a high degree of control over how the virtual call center routes on-demand requests. For example, you can prioritize the use of certified medical interpreters; in a growing number of states, healthcare organizations need to be able to demonstrate that they make an effort to access certified medical interpreters first.
Ease of Use
Virtual interpreter call center solutions available on the market today are easy to use, web-based, and device-agnostic—there’s no need to download specialized software or buy new equipment. This simplicity helps your in-house interpreters and providers not only adopt the platform but also feel comfortable and confident using it.
Reduced IT Burden
Choosing a virtual interpreter call center solution hosted by your language services partner eliminates the need for additional integrations to ensure smooth rollover to the partner’s remote interpreters. Solutions available today are simple, secure, and HIPAA compliant, minimizing the need for IT teams to configure or support complicated software.
Language access is a human right, and nowhere is it more important to be able to communicate effectively than in healthcare, where lives are at stake. Your in-house interpreters play a critical role in helping your teams bridge any communication gaps to engage patients and improve the overall health of the communities you serve. By leveraging a hybrid model using a virtual interpreter call center, your language services teams can focus on equitable language access for your patients, instead of scheduling logistics. This means you can make the most out of your in-house teams while ensuring seamless connection to the interpreters provided by your language services partner.
About Kristin Quinlan
Kristin Quinlan is the CEO of Certified Languages International (CLI), a U.S.-based interpreting company founded in 1996. After joining CLI in 1999, she rose to CEO in 2006 and leads a team of over 250 employees and thousands of professional interpreters. CLI specializes in remote interpreting services in 230+ languages, handling 20,000–30,000 calls daily in sectors including healthcare systems and medical clinics, financial institutions, call centers, insurance companies, government agencies, court systems, schools, utilities, telecommunications, technology, and retail. Under Quinlan’s leadership, CLI isn’t just a provider of interpretive services, but an advocate fighting for the greater good of comprehensive language access.
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