Medical Interpreter Program Is Expanded at Holyoke Medical Center

HOLYOKE – From keeping patients’ families informed of diagnoses and procedures all the way through ensuring that patients get the best in pain management, Holyoke Medical Center has always done its utmost to make overall patient care one its top priorities.

And nothing speaks more to that commitment than the hospital’s expansion of its Medical Interpreter Program.

In October of last year, HMC more than doubled the number of medical interpreters on its staff, going from three to eight. This not only allowed more patients to have access to this service but also increased the scope of hours the service is available.

“It’s a very important step and it reinforces how seriously Holyoke Medical Center is committed to patient care,” said Xenia Rosado-Merced, manager of the hospital’s Community Outreach Department.

The Community Outreach Department provides a medical interpreter to patients who are not fluent in English. Holyoke Medical Center is committed to ensuring that those patients who do not speak English get the same level of care as those who do. For patients who speak other languages, Holyoke Medical Center has contracts with several interpreter services and can provide interpreters for up to 148 languages, such as Polish, Russian, Portuguese, and others, said Rosado-Merced.

The expansion came on the heels of a great honor: Last year, Holyoke Medical Center’s senior interpreter Rafael Mojica gave the hospital some much-deserved attention on this subject by winning the state’s Medical Interpreter of the Year Award for 2005.

Now Mojica and his colleagues Janet Gonzalez and Diana Garcia, have been joined by five new additions to the staff: Gladys Betancourt, Iris Colon, Aida DeJesus, Rebecca Shultz, and Arida Rivera.

“Last year we provided about 10,000 interpreting services,” said Rosado-Merced. “Now we hope to dramatically increase that number and ensure that all Hispanic patients and any patients with limited English skills have this service available to them.”

One of the recently added staff members, Betancourt, loves her new job. She started working at Holyoke Medical Center’s cafeteria and later moved to the Emergency Department as a customer liaison. These individuals “basically make sure patients get where they need to be,” Betancourt said. But she also was able to provide some interpreting skills in that job when needed, she added. In a fortunate bit of timing, the expansion of the interpreter program occurred just when her patient liaison job ended.

“I just love helping people, so it’s a perfect job for me,” she said. “I know that I helped make their stay here better and they leave a lot happier.”

Holyoke Medical Center has also been able to expand interpreter services for non-English speaking families who are dealing with the end-of-life process. This was made possible by a grant from the Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation. Garcia, one of the original interpreters, handles this sensitive but crucial part of the interpreter program.

“I was very interested since I first heard about it, “she said. “It’s very special for me to be able to help families in this way. I help families in the Hispanic community understand the concept of a health care proxy and end-of-life decisions, which can be very confusing.”

Garcia said that because of the strong sense of family in the Hispanic community, families sometimes feel pressure to do it all themselves, but at the same time are hesitant to allow a terminally ill family member get hospice care.

“I try to help them understand what hospice care is, and what can do for them and their loved ones. I want to help alleviate any pressures they may feel.” Garcia also welcomes the additional assistance provided by her five new team members.

“The expansion of the program gives us a lot of help with an always growing demand” she said. “Our goal is to make sure everyone gets the same level of care no matter what language they speak.”

For more information on Holyoke Medical Center’s Medical Interpreter Program, please call the Community Outreach Department at (413) 534-2607.