This is something that has impressed me a lot. Three Californian hospitals are using voice and video over IP creatively in order to counter the common language barriers between the doctors and patients. How does one benefit from it? Doctors and patients are connected through Health care Interpreter Network with Spanish interpreters in a call center. Doctors get in touch with an interpreter using consoles at nursing stations who speaks English and the language of the patient. Calls get answered quite quickly i.e. in less than five minutes and are connected within forty seconds. Emergency calls are given priority. For languages other than Spanish such as Hindi, Cambodian, Tongan and Hmong doctors get connected to hospital employees who speak these languages.
As per Markella Kodoyanni:
This is the first time I've seen technology being used in this way to address a difficult communication problem between patient and doctors.
As of now only three hospitals are participating i.e. San Mateo Medical Center, San Joaquin General Hospital and Con- tra Costa Health Services. It is expected that two more Californian hospitals would become a member of the network in the coming months. Certainly this would make life easier for patients and doctors as earlier patients faced problems in explaining their problems and understanding advice from the doctor and avoid any mishappenings. This can certainly be termed as a blessing in disguise.
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