Hospital library foreign language labs: the experiences of two hospital libraries

Increasingly, hospital-based physicians, residents, and medical students are welcoming into their care foreign-born patients, who do not speak English. Most hospitals today have an Interpretive Services Department, but many of the physicians, residents, and medical students want to become more proficient in the most frequently spoken foreign languages in their respective locales. To help recruit and retain a diverse workforce, some hospitals sponsor English programs for staff. The Treadwell Library at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Grady Branch Library at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, have developed a special collection and hospital library-based language laboratories in order to meet this need.