Hospital Management: Holistic Translation for Better Patient Experience

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HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT: HOLISTIC TRANSLATION FOR BETTER PATIENT EXPERIENCE

Traditional medical translation, such as the translation of different reports and pharmaceutical products, plays a vital role in helping healthcare providers implement the necessary treatment needed for patients whenever there is a language barrier. Nowadays, hospitals go beyond the basic and are committed to providing holistic translation for better patient experience.

Website

Serving increasingly diverse populations and populations with limited English proficiencies, many healthcare facilities face growing language barriers with their patients. Since hospital websites and mobile apps are utilised as first-touch points to offer important information to patients in distress, providing a multilingual version helps convey messages to patients clearly and improve patient trust. It is particularly important if the country has more than one official language or a large expat population. A multilingual website also plays a prominent role in attracting medical tourists by providing a proper medical information system.

Apart from the public website, a localised patient portal works as an excellent platform for closer patient-physician relationship. While patients are able to request appointments and referrals directly from the portal increasing the efficiency of hospital staff, healthcare providers can have 24-hour access to patients’ information and record stored in the cloud system.

Medical documents and live chat

Documents such as medical histories, consent forms required for medical procedures, discharge summary, prescription, operative report and medical device labels are common types of medical documents required translation. By providing accurate translations of such documents, patients will be more knowledgeable about the medical procedure they need to undergo, reducing stress and creating peace of mind. For patients seeking treatment abroad, needing care during holiday or using medical documents as evidence in a legal proceeding, providing translation of necessary documents by the hospital will undeniably improve the patient experience and increase patient satisfaction.

Live chatbot supported by machine translation provides real time interaction with patients who are actively looking online for information. Leveraging on this 24/7 service, patients have the benefits of immediate access to care that reduces the wait time while health professional can schedule a follow-up appointment and corresponding treatment by reviewing the chat transcripts and reports.

Interpreting

There are mainly three types of interpretation in the hospital industry. In-person consecutive interpreting is the conventional practice where the interpreter shares the same room with the patient and the healthcare provider. Video remote interpreting helps facilitate communication via web cameras and microphones, offering both spoken interpretation as well as sign language. Over-the-phone interpreting services are in great demand during the pandemic as the interpreter provides services remotely via a conferencing facility.

Professional medical interpreters are well trained and knowledgeable in medical terms and procedures. They help improve understanding and compliance at each step the patient takes during their healthcare journey, reducing the risk of misunderstandings. The risk of misdiagnosis can be reduced as patients are able to explain their concerns and feelings more comfortably.

Family members or other ad-hoc interpreters might be a possible solution in an urgent situation, yet far from ideal. Lacking the knowledge and training necessary for smooth communication in a medical context, they may fail to accurately convey the messages and minimise the importance of specific details, creating confusion and leading to a wrong diagnosis.

Providing all-round medical translation is crucial to healthcare-related communications as it improves patient satisfaction and safety. Elite Asia’s extensive experiences in the pharmaceutical industry allow us to provide different types of solutions, including healthcare document translation, website localisation, e-learning material translation, multilingual marketing service as well as medical interpreting.