And this is assimilation??? Further proof that the Lib-Idiots and PC Police are screwing up America:
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Breaking the language barrier
Hospitals utilize multilingual aides to connect with patients

September 4, 2007
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/nape ... S1.article
By KATIE FOUTZ Staff writer

"Clases Prenatales en Español," says a flier at Edward Hospital, promoting obstetrics unit tours, childbirth basics and cesarean birth classes taught in Spanish.

A childbirth educator who is bilingual teaches the classes. But until April, expectant mothers who spoke a language other than English had to find a bilingual friend or relative to take the class with them and serve as an interpreter, said Susan Bard, perinatal education coordinator for Edward Hospital in Naperville.

"We see the need on the OB unit when patients come in," she said.

There, hospital staff members can dial into a 24-hour service that provides medical interpreters trained in 150 languages, and they can conduct a conversation over a speaker phone. State and federal laws require health-care facilities to provide trained medical interpreters free of charge to patients with poor English skills.

The service takes the pressure off family members, often minors, who might not know anatomical terms in both languages or may be reluctant to communicate bad news. It also ensures the patients, nurses and doctors understand each other's needs and recommendations, and studies have shown that leads to fewer mistakes and better health.

Area hospitals offer a range of interpreting services - on-staff medical interpreters, contract medical interpreters, bilingual staff members, teleconference, video conference or a combination. And the need is growing.

Immigration accounted for more than 50 percent of DuPage County's population growth between 1990 and 2000, and nearly all of the growth since 2000, according to the U.S. Census. In DuPage County, 18 percent of residents were born in another country, and 9.3 percent of residents older than age 5 report that they speak English less than very well. In Will County, 7.1 percent were foreign-born, and 4.2 percent of residents older than age 5 speak English less than very well.

Local human-services organizations noticed the numbers but struggled to find bilingual staff, said Linda Coronado, director of the Language Access Resource Center at the DuPage Federation on Human Services Reform in Villa Park. She started training interpreters for DuPage County hospitals and clinics in July 2006. Since then, 30 interpreters have gained certification through the program.

Coronado acknowledges the immigration critics.

"People say, 'Why don't they learn English?'" she said. "They will learn English, but in the meantime, when they have a belly ache, who's going to help them understand whether they just have an upset stomach, or it's their gall bladder, or they need surgery for something more serious?"

In the past year, Edward Hospital has accessed interpreters in languages from Albanian and American Sign Language to Urdu and Yoruba, though the most in demand are Spanish, Polish, Vietnamese, Mandarin and Korean, said registered nurse Sherry Markwell, Edward risk manager and coordinator of the hospital's "language line." An interpreter - even one over the phone - brought visible relief to one patient just diagnosed with diabetes, she said.

"She had brought her husband to interpret, but he was nervous (thinking) he wouldn't know all the words or understand everything we were saying," she said. "Both of them could relax and get all information they needed about her new diagnosis." Noe Azpeitia gets that all the time.

He is the coordinator of multicultural services at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, and the Spanish interpreter on staff. He helps 80 to 120 patients a month speak with their health-care providers from the moment they arrive to the moment they're discharged. If a volunteer at the front desk can't communicate with someone, out comes the board with all of the available languages printed on it. All the patient has to do is point, and a medical interpreter can help over the phone or by video conference, sometimes while an in-person interpreter is on the way.

Someone who is bilingual cannot necessarily interpret - he or she could start to sympathize with patients and lose focus, Azpeitia said.

"They don't know what to do when they're caught in the middle," he said. "You have to be neutral. You direct them to look at each other so there's a feeling of clear communication."

Thursday afternoon, he accompanied 20-year-old Jose Garnica of West Chicago to same-day surgery. He needed a biopsy on tumors in his neck and chest. Azpeitia stood against the wall and relayed instructions in Spanish as registered nurse Maura Hupp took Garnica's vital signs and asked about his medical history. Through Azpeitia, Garnica explained the upper left side of his chest started hurting about a month ago.

When the nurse stepped out of the room, so did the interpreter.

"We're just their voice," Azpeitia said. "If we stay in the room, sometimes they'll start talking to us and expect us to tell the doctors and nurses, but we don't do that."

Later, on rounds to patients on the fifth floor, he visited 27-year-old Glen Ellyn resident Juan Hernandez during a blood transfusion. Hernandez had spent more than a week recovering from an automobile crash that injured both of his legs. He appreciated having someone speak for him and his caregivers.

"It's good because I know what I need to know," he said through Azpeitia. "That way, none of the questions will stay inside me. I can express myself through the interpreter."