The Remote Video Medical Interpreter Bank Project is a collaboration between health care providers in San Joaquin County and metropolitan public hospitals in Northern California, seeking to improve access to medical interpreters for their limited English proficiency patients. This collaboration will create a shared Remote Video Medical Interpreter Bank utilizing cutting edge information and communication technology. A cost-effective, high-quality system of shared medical interpreters will improve access to health services in San Joaquin County and the Northern California Region. The target population is low-income, rural, and inner-city limited English proficiency immigrant patients, who are predominantly from minority communities as well as American Sign Language speaking deaf persons.
This effort will link community partners in San Joaquin County with urban public hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area. The collaboration will create a business and technology plan to utilize Internet Protocol (IP) based videoconferencing and voice over IP systems for medical interpretation.
The health care system, as a whole, is not equipped to operate in an environment where there is a constant and overwhelming demand for numerous service languages. Maintaining providers or bilingual personnel in all service areas on a 24-7 basis, in multiple languages, is virtually impossible. The project's goals are to improve medical interpretive services, set a new standard of quality for medical care for limited English proficiency patients, reduce medical errors, and improve patient outcomes.
Innovations in technology allow new mechanisms to provide access to medical interpreters and bilingual staff through IP based videoconferencing utilizing broadband connections. The introduction of low-cost, high quality IP-based videoconferencing technology allows for high-quality face-to-face interpretive services on a remote basis. A cost-effective mechanism to deliver medical interpretive services will enable these budget-challenged health care providers to improve the availability and quality of interpreter services.
