Blog

Organizations that deal with the public are creating an unprecedented amount of content these days. When lives are at stake, every communication — to employees, customers, constituents, members — is critical. And every communication must connect.

How do you know when yours is “there”?

We have heard from numerous clients recently that are having difficulty staffing their Spanish call centers. They know it’s imperative that they provide support to limited-English speakers when calls come into their main business line. Yet they find themselves unable to deliver needed Spanish-language support in today’s environment.

We would like to share with you a simple-yet-customized language-support solution that has proven effective for several clients. We hope it might be useful for you, too. We refer to it as Direct Response. It delivers a state-of-the-art, in-language call-flow experience that can be seamlessly integrated into your existing customer-support model in more than 40 languages.

During a period in which there is an urgent need to distribute information about coronavirus (COVID-19), it is vital to remember that 20 percent of U.S. residents speak a language other than English at home. This means that one in five patients or citizens seeking testing or other information may require that content translated in a foreign language.

A natural question for healthcare providers, government agencies, and businesses would be, “What content should I prioritize having translated?”

The use of telehealth is rapidly expanding. Particularly during a health emergency in which the risk of infection is high and the need for care is urgent, physicians are seeking to meet with patients remotely using telehealth solutions.

Given the highly contagious nature of the coronavirus (COVID-19), some healthcare providers are meeting with their patients from a distance via video-conferencing platforms like Zoom, GoToMeeting, WebEx, Skype, as well as traditional telemedicine platforms.

In these challenging times, we recognize the importance of providing easy access to translated materials that communicate with customers, employees, patients, and constituents about the coronavirus (COVID-19).  As your trusted partner, we are offering emergency weekend coverage to ensure that your most critical, off-hour translation needs are addressed as quickly as possible.

For our existing clients, we have created a COVID-19-specific submission portal to streamline the processing of these emergency translation requests.  If you need to initiate a rush translation project over the weekend, please go directly to this portal and upload your content. Our team will start on the translation immediately and confirm a delivery time. We will make every effort to return the translation as soon as possible.

Amid an international health emergency, the White House has expanded Medicare telehealth coverage that enables beneficiaries to receive a wider range of healthcare services from their doctors without having to travel to a healthcare facility.

What should providers do if they want to use telehealth but the patient speaks a foreign language? Below, we will address a simple solution to using telemedicine with limited-English-proficient patients. First, let’s take a closer look at this expansion of telehealth coverage.

One aspect of this international health crisis that should stick in our minds is the fact that maintenance of public health means all members of the public. Viruses do not discriminate. To be successful in mitigating them, public health initiatives should not, either.

To this end, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has provided a bulletin to ensure that entities covered by civil rights authorities know that civil rights laws around language are not set aside during an emergency.

To Our Valued Clients and Partners,

Aware that society is becoming more diverse by the day, forward-looking businesses are implementing on-demand, mobile interpreting for their customer-facing teams. This allows them to use mobile devices to access live interpreters via audio or video in seconds.

The result is clear communication, regardless of language.

On March 25 at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET, LanguageLine will host a webinar titled “How Business Leaders Are Using App-Based Mobile Interpreting to Improve Customer Experience and Boost Their Bottom Lines.”

Healthcare organizations are frequently confused or anxious when it comes to onsite surveys of their compliance with The Joint Commission’s language-access standards. They frequently find themselves scrambling as a visit from TJC looms.

This issue is particularly pressing as North America grows ever-more diverse.

Our upcoming webinar seeks to provide more information about TJC’s patient-centered standards for communication and onsite surveys so that hospitals and other providers can feel confident heading into these audits.