Resources

Helping an Established Hospital Grow Their Dual-Role Medical Interpreter Team

The University of Pennsylvania had a robust team of qualified and certified interpreters and had partnered with an agency to help with the demand of requests. While they had intentions on training their bilingual staff members to be interpreters, their Language Services Department prioritized their commitment to meeting each patient request for an interpreter, and the goal to train more staff was put off for too long. When their language manager called us, they were relieved to hear that we were one of only two providers in our state to offer the most respected interpreter training program, The Community Interpreter International: a 40-to-60-hour medical interpreter training. Within days of their first call to us, we had enrolled several of their employees to train with us so that they could be qualified to interpret at their hospital. We were able to offer this office a discount since we could use their on-site training space. Additionally, our students from the University of Pennsylvania would have access to our online resources and training materials for continuing education, and a network of local language professionals to motivate them to be leaders in their field of professional interpreting.