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More hospitals going multilingual

By ANNE GEGGIS
Staff Writer

Last update: August 27, 2005


Between her husband's limited English and the hospital nurses' grasp of a little Spanish, Rosalba Hernandez of DeLand was able to get the message earlier this month: "Empuje" or "Push."

Six-pound, 9-ounce Daniel Melendez was born at 11:30 p.m. Aug. 2 and now the push is on at Florida Hospital West Volusia Division to increase the focus on diversity at the division's two hospitals, Florida Hospital DeLand -- where Daniel was born-- and Florida Hospital Fish Memorial in Orange City.

For the first time, the hospitals' 1,600 employees are being offered free, formal Spanish lessons that focus on medical terminology. And videotape illustrating medical scenarios in which culture plays a role has been shown to all current employees and to all new employees in the last six months..

It's all part of a multipronged effort to address a reality that's becoming more apparent around Flagler and Volusia counties: Increasingly patients are less likely to be native speakers of English.

Clinics and hospitals are concerned they could be overwhelmed with people needing translation services -- which can present a financial burden for those managing their operations on a string. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 says medical facilities receiving federal funds must provide interpreter services.

"We're holding our own," said Bonnie Welter, nursing director at the Flagler County Health Department. "I have a limited number of employees who can do some interpretation. And we have a telephone line that we can use (for translation) that comes out of our pockets."

The demand for these services isn't going away anytime soon. U.S. Census data shows 45,408 people speak 38 languages other than English in Volusia County and 5,357 people speak 29 languages other than English in Flagler County.

A July report from the Center for Immigration Studies says as of 2002, 23 percent of all U.S. births were to immigrant mothers -- or nearly one in four births. Locally, figures show the number of babies born to area mothers born outside the United States has grown much faster than those born to American-born mothers. The number of babies born to foreign-born women increased from one in 15 births in 1985, to one in six in 2004. One in 17 Flagler County births were to foreign-born mothers in 1985, compared with one in seven births last year.

Getting certain kinds of health information into the hands of those who speak foreign languages can be a challenge. Bill Crippen, executive director of the Pierson Medical Center, had to send away to Texas to find information about diabetes written in Spanish, he said.

As for immediate medical concerns, most of the medical clinics and hospitals in the area have access to a system similar to one used by Flagler County's Health Department and by Florida Hospital Memorial System at its locations in Palm Coast and Ormond Beach. Optimal Phone Interpreters is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week service that provides interpreters for 140 languages; it can be dialed into from the emergency departments, the admission desks and the nurses stations.

If a patient doesn't speak English, the nurse calls the line and a conference call between the nurse, the patient and the interpreter ensues. Getting hooked into an interpreter takes no more than five minutes, according to Joanne Magley, spokeswoman for Florida Hospital Memorial Health Systems.

At most medical facilities, though, a bilingual person who is present and available will be used before dialing into the translation service. Aida Santana, a nurses' aide at Florida Hospital DeLand, has become an important resource for the whole facility because the native Spanish speaker took a course in translating medical terminology this past year.

"I've been called upon as a translator for all units, including the BirthCare Center, the Emergency Department and Intensive Care Unit," Santana said.

Speaking through an interpreter, Rosalba Hernandez said she felt comfortable during her delivery and subsequent stay at Florida Hospital DeLand.

"None of the doctors" spoke Spanish, said the 23-year-old mother of another son. "Between some of the Spanish that the nurses spoke and some English that my husband spoke, I could understand."

Sharon Campbell, human resources director at Florida Hospital DeLand, said the current effort in West Volusia came out of employee focus groups about areas to improve.

"Our bottom line is that it's all about treating each other with respect," Campbell said. "We're treating each other with the understanding that, although we are all different, we are all working toward a common goal."

anne.geggis@news-jrnl.com

Staff Writer Lyda Longa contributed to this report.

DID YOU KNOW?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs, more than 44,000 children are born abroad to U.S. citizen parents each year.

· The U.S. Constitution directs that only natural-born citizens are eligible to be president and the meaning of "natural born" has been an ongoing debate. Some say it will take a court challenge to determine whether children born to U.S. citizen parents who are living and working on foreign soil are natural born and eligible for the presidency.

· Many attempts have been made to legislate a definition of a naturally born citizen. In 2004, Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., introduced the Natural Born Citizen Act to define a natural-born citizen as either a person born in the United States, a person born to a U.S. citizen, or a person under 18 adopted by a U.S. citizen parent. The bill is still in committee.