Perspectives of Healthcare Providers towards Remote Medical Interpreting Services in Japan

Language support is necessary for effective healthcare as language obstacles have a negative impact on patient outcomes. Medical facilities dealing with novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were forced to restrict the number of healthcare professionals on the field, and medical interpreters were no exception. This has prompted the introduction of remote medical interpreting systems, which do not necessitate the presence of an interpreter onsite. However, as the dominant trend in offering linguistic help was face-to-face medical interpreting, healthcare staff are also battling with its utilization. We conducted a single-centered, retrospective study by examining written responses taken from April 2018 to March 2020 and a total of 236 healthcare employees in Japan, to identify the primary reasons of such challenges. Remote medical interpreting was frequently employed by a range of professions in many departments across various languages, and the majority of users were satisfied with the experience. The qualitative analysis based on the free opinions of the healthcare professionals unraveled three main concerns towards remote medical interpreting: connection to the interpreting providers; coordination of the remote interpreting coordinators, and quality of interpreting. Therefore, increasing the use of remote medical interpreting while simultaneously training interpreters by enhancing the skills required in Japanese medical facilities would be necessary.