About Us
The University of Michigan Health System is committed to providing first-rate health care to patients of all backgrounds. Part of that commitment is ensuring that non-English speaking patients enjoy equal access to our services. Each year, the Health System treats thousands of patients who are deaf or limited English proficient. For them, a visit to the doctor would be confusing and even dangerous without the assistance of a trained medical interpreter.
Though the Health System has been providing interpreters for several decades, it wasn’t until the late 1990s that Interpreter Services became an official program. Since that time, the demand for interpreters has grown exponentially, climbing from 370 in 1990, to more than 2,000 requests per month.
To keep pace with this growth, Interpreter Services has expanded dramatically. Since 1998, our staff has grown from two part-time interpreters to 20 staff interpreters, five administrative staff and a pool of more than 100 contractors, covering more than 40 languages. Through the years, our mission has remained constant: to provide high-quality, confidential interpretation, free of charge, to deaf and LEP patients and families - at all points of contact in the Health System, during all hours of operation. We’re also committed to:
- Establishing a safe and healthy environment so patients feel comfortable and empowered despite their language barriers.
- Educating patients and families in their preferred language about their right to receive language assistance.
- Raising staff’s awareness about the impact of culture and language on health care delivery.
- Ensuring that HIPAA forms and other important documents are available in languages most commonly spoken by patients.
- Providing accurate translations of medical and billing records sent to UMHS from hospitals abroad.
- Maintaining current demographic, cultural and epidemiological profiles of the community, to help us offer services that respond to the cultural and linguistic characteristics of our service area.
- Collaborating with local ethnic communities to ensure that patients and families unfamiliar with the American health care system receive the high-quality care they deserve.
Achieving these goals would be impossible without the dedication and professionalism of our staff. Our interpreters are carefully screened and highly trained for work in the medical field. Along with a mastery of languages, many of our staff interpreters have medical backgrounds – and they all must complete a rigorous training program before they begin working.
To help our interpreters maintain the high standard of performance required in a medical setting, Interpreter Services offers continuous opportunities to enhance their knowledge and develop their skills. We are a licensed provider of Bridging the Gap, one of the top interpreter training programs in the nation.
Interpreter Services is dedicated to facilitating effective communication between LEP and deaf patients and their care providers. We understand that this communication is vital to a patient’s successful treatment, and we welcome your suggestions on how we can best provide it.
