Interpreter assemblages: Caring for immigrant and refugee patients in US hospitals

Area of Science:

• Medical Sociology
• Health Services Research
• Anthropology of Health

Background:

• Hospitals use various strategies to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate care.
• Healthcare interpreters (in-person, phone, video) are a key strategy for patients with limited English proficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the dynamic combinations of human and nonhuman elements during hospital visits involving healthcare interpreters.
• To introduce and explore the concept of "interpreter assemblage" in multilingual healthcare settings.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative fieldwork over 9 months in 2012.
• Observation of 69 adult immigrant and refugee patients' encounters with interpreters and staff in a Maine hospital.

Main Results:

• Identified contingent and unstable combinations of human (patients, interpreters, staff) and nonhuman (technology, ideas) elements.
• Demonstrated how these elements form and disperse dynamically during patient visits.
• The concept of "interpreter assemblage" captures the transnational mixes creating multilingual care.

Conclusions:

• "Interpreter assemblage" offers a novel framework for understanding the complexities of multilingual hospital care.
• This approach highlights the heterogeneous, dynamic, and context-dependent nature of interpreter use.
• Recognizing these assemblages can improve the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate healthcare services.