In a frequently cited study, Patil and Davies found that Google Translate was only 57% accurate and concluded that it could not be trusted for the translation of medical phrases. Google Translate is an increasingly popular option for written translation 5, 6 and, in some hospital systems, has become the go-to source of written translations, especially for patient-specific discharge instructions given to LEP patients. While the optimal response in this situation is to write the patient’s discharge instructions in English and have the instructions verbally interpreted to the patient using a certified health care interpreter, many providers resort to the use of machine translation for efficiency. The challenge, however, is when the provider must convey patient specific instructions such as “Come to the ophthalmology clinic at 8 am on Thursday and bring your records from the outside hospital.” Frequently, there is no mechanism for requesting written translations in the acute setting. 4 Many electronic health records (EHRs) have pre-written patient education sheets for specific diagnoses such as “Upper Respiratory Infection” in a variety of languages and providers can easily use these to provide written materials in the patient’s preferred language. Whereas most hospitals in the USA have access to spoken language assistance via phone interpreters, a gap exists in the capacity for written translation. Written discharge instructions contain critical information about the patient’s diagnosis, treatment plan, and follow-up. 3 The discharge process is a particularly important point in terms of patient–provider communication. Patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) have low rates of understanding of appointment type and medications 1, higher rates of medication errors 2, and unplanned return visits to an emergency department.
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