The impact of medical interpretation method on time and errors

Area of Science:

• Medical Interpreting
• Healthcare Communication
• Linguistic Analysis

Background:

• Millions of Americans have limited English proficiency, impacting healthcare access.
• Effective communication is crucial for quality medical care for all patients.
• The impact of different interpreting methods on patient care quality is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of various medical interpreting methods on speed and accuracy.
• To compare remote simultaneous medical interpreting (RSMI) with other methods.

Main Methods:

• Four scripted clinical encounters were used to compare four interpreting methods: remote simultaneous, remote consecutive, proximate consecutive, and proximate ad hoc.
• Professional interpreters were used in three methods, while untrained staff were used in the ad hoc method.
• Encounter transcripts were coded for medical and linguistic errors by blinded coders, and timings were recorded.

Main Results:

• Remote simultaneous medical interpreting (RSMI) encounters were significantly faster (12.72 minutes) than the next fastest method (18.24 minutes, p = 0.002).
• RSMI encounters had 12 times fewer moderate or severe clinical medical errors compared to non-RSMI methods (p = 0.0002).

Conclusions:

• Remote simultaneous medical interpreting (RSMI) demonstrated superior speed and safety compared to other tested methods.
• Despite limitations in the number of interpreters, RSMI emerged as a more efficient and reliable approach for limited English proficient patients.