An article written by ProPublica magazine outlines what happened with a Hungarian-speaking patient in Brooklyn
hospital in March 2020, just at the beginning of the Covid19 crisis. Furthermore, it investigates the efficacy of
remote interpreting in such delicate settings. A medical staff member who treated this woman believes she
would have gotten better care if she spoke English. As she only spoke Hungarian, he called a telephone interpreting
service. Still, between the N95 mask covering his mouth and the helmet covering his ears, it was impossible to get
this patient’s medical history. Unfortunately, this woman died the following night and this is not the only case like
this reported during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter to healthcare trusts in the US, many national community interpreting associations advised all hospitals,
health systems, clinics and healthcare providers to deploy RI for most of their interactions between patients and
medical staff. They suggested IR as the primary modality of providing language access services in the time of the
pandemic as interpreters are often called into situations that require close contact and therefore they are more
exposed to the pandemic.
Given the lack of safety measures for interpreters who work in close quarters of any public place the invitation to
use remote interpreting is understandable. However, remote forms of interpreting are more easily adapted in \conference interpreting settings because of their more isolated nature (interpreters are mainly working in booths) and also because major conference organizers have more financial resources to deploy sophisticated technology than in the public service sector.
How important is to have an access to sophisticated software and platforms is shown in research conducted by The Central University of Catalonia which interviewed interpreters who both did RSI in public service and conference settings. The experience tells that public service providers used cheap and not specialized software (i.e. Skype) and many connection issues, technical glitches and poor sound quality influenced not only the quality of interpreting but also the case had to be adjourned and only 80% of the schedule was achieved (Runcieman, 2020, p. 13).
On the other hand, the experience in RSI in conference settings showed that they were provided with expensive commercial software (i.e. Interprefy, Kudo) and that they were properly trained on how to use it. Interpreters reported a lot of additional features which enabled participants to get more quality interpretation.
Reference:
Kaplan J, 2020, March 31, Hospitals Have Left Many COVID-19 Patients Who Don’t Speak English Alone, Confused and Without Proper Care, https://www.propublica.org/article/hospitals-have-left-many-covid19-patients-who-dont-speak-english-alone-confused-and-without-proper-care
Read about remote interpreting in our following posts!