Nowadays, healthcare translation services have become popular among various healthcare providers and stakeholders. These parties have realized the benefits that emanate from translation services.
Communicare, a medical language service provider (MLSP) and digital medical marketer, have identified six benefits that translation services offer to the healthcare industry as follows:
- Saving lives
- Saving time
- Saving money
- Improving patient care
- Improving mobility
- Reducing medical errors
Saving Lives
Your life is usually on the line whenever you are sick. In other words, any delay in receiving timely medical intervention whenever you are sick can cost your life. For this reason, there is a need to receive medical services whenever you are sick.
The language barrier is one of the challenges that the healthcare industry faces. This barrier hampers an effective healthcare provision. For example, Vietnamese physicians can’t treat a patient from the Middle East without understanding the patient’s language. There is a high probability that the doctor cannot treat the patient in such a situation.
Healthcare translation services come in handy in such a situation. These services help translate a patient’s language into a language that a doctor can understand. In our previous case, translation services can convert a Middle East language into Vietnamese. In return, the doctor can diagnose and treat the patient effectively, thus saving a life.
If the Vietnamese doctor tries to treat the patient without understanding the patient’s language, there is a high probability that the doctor will make medical errors. These errors are a significant cause of death in the healthcare industry. However, translation services are one of the solutions to this issue.
Saving Time
Time is a fundamental factor in the healthcare industry. From timely reception of medical interventions to timely medical processes, time matters. Failure to get a translator in time can delay the provision of medical services. What can be a solution to this problem?
As mentioned earlier, the solution to the problem lies in having instant translation services on site. Such services can be telephonic, internet-based, or in-person technology. Language service providers, such as Communicare, can provide such technology to the healthcare industry, thus saving time.
Notably, healthcare services are most effective in real-time. In other words, there is no time to refer. In an instance when a healthcare facility requires translation services, these services should take place in real-time. For this reason, every healthcare facility should have translation technology in place. Such a move facilitates the provision of healthcare services in real-time.
Saving Money
A delay in finding a medical translator reduces productivity in a medical facility. Such a repercussion reduces the ability of the facility to generate revenue. Also, it increases expenditure because sometimes it can violate service-level agreements.
So, every medical facility should ensure that its staff provides medical services at all times without diverting to other non-medical activities, such as looking for an interpreter.
Having translation services in a healthcare facility enables medics to concentrate on caregiving activities. In other words, translation services facilitate a seamless flow of medical care provision. A medical facility should never task its staff with non-medical activities when there is an emergency on-site.
We cannot overlook the fact that finding an interpreter on an emergency basis can be costly. Often, interpreters are engaged, and they have to leave what they are doing to address an emergency service provision. In return, they can charge high costs.
To avoid the high costs of hiring an interpreter, every medical facility should have translation technology on site. This move ensures that the facility gets the best bargain when engaging language service providers. Also, the facility can channel the premium that it could have paid for emergency translation services to other production activities.
Improving Patient Care
The healthcare industry invests continuously in strategies that can improve patient care. In other words, the industry is always in a quest to provide instant medical services whenever a need arises. There is no better way of improving patient care than employing technology, such as translation services technology.
To begin with, translation services technology applies to medical documentation. The technology helps medics document accurate patient records and interpret medical history appropriately. In return, doctors and other medics offer the correct medical interventions to patients despite any language barrier.
Translation services promote global information sharing in the healthcare industry. In other words, a doctor in the Middle East can treat a patient from the Caribbean Islands. So, translation services have made the world a global village where information sharing is seamless.
The information-sharing capability that comes from translation services also denotes that medical professionals can share unique information to improve patient care. Researchers in healthcare can share crucial information about their finding with everyone in the global healthcare industry. In return, any helpful medical research findings become beneficial to everyone worldwide.
Improving Mobility
Medical translation services have also made it possible for medical professionals to work from anywhere in the world. These services make it possible for doctors to reach out to people who live in the world’s remotest regions. In return, marginalized people can access medical services, and all credit goes to healthcare or medical translation services.
Healthcare of medical translation also denotes that patients can get medical attention from anywhere in the world. Some patients have special needs or preferences that can necessitate seeking medical attention from abroad. In such an instance, translation services facilitate communication between patients and doctors in non-local settings.
Tourists can also get medical services from anywhere in the world, thanks to translation services. Some medical conditions require immediate attention, and tourists cannot wait to get back to their home country and receive medical care. For this reason, translation services have made it possible for local doctors to attend to any tourist medical needs.
Sometimes, it is impossible to get a translator in some parts of the world. For this reason, translation technology comes in handy. Language service providers offer portable technology that patients and doctors can access while moving. So, translation services have enhanced mobility because people cannot fear travelling because of inaccessible medical services due to a language barrier.
Reducing Medical Errors
Medical errors happen when medical professionals miss minor details when providing medical interventions. The language barrier is one of the significant factors that can make medical professionals fail to notice all the details regarding their patients.
Medical professionals rely on verbal and written information they get from their patients. In both sources of information, the medics have to understand the content comprehensively. In other words, the medics have to understand what a patient says or writes. Also, the medics have to understand the content in the medical records of a patient.
On the other end, all patients have to understand a doctor’s questions. They also have to answer the questions accurately. Failure to understand and answer the questions accurately can result in medical errors.
To reiterate, medical errors are costly. Besides increasing medical consumption on the part of the patients, medical errors can result in death and expensive lawsuits. Also, the errors can result in a closure of a medical facility. Overall, all medical facilities should avoid medical errors at all costs.
Translation services are one of the solutions for eliminating medical errors. These services facilitate effective communication between a doctor and a patient. Also, translation services facilitate a clear understanding of a patient’s medical records. In return, the medics offer the appropriate interventions, and patients get satisfaction from the medical services.
The Bottom Line
From the discussion, healthcare or medical translation services are necessary for all medical facilities and professionals. Given that the healthcare industry operates in the best interest of the patients, translation services are one of the strategies that the industry should adopt to achieve this objective.
Failure to adopt translation services leaves a gap in the operations of the healthcare industry. The gap entails a failure to provide universal healthcare and address patient concerns effectively and comprehensively, among other issues.
Comprehensive medical service provision calls for the adoption of translation services. Better still, it warrants the acquisition of translation technology to enhance instant medical service provision.
If any medical facility wants to operate optimally, it should install translation technology. This move enables such a facility to attend to any patient despite a language barrier. Also, the adoption of translation technology denotes that a medical facility can benefit from global medical information.
Patients are the primary beneficiaries of medical translation services. The services facilitate the reception of instant medical services regardless of language and geographical barriers. Translation services enable patients to understand doctors’ questions and answer them accurately. In return, the patients get satisfactory medical services.
To find the best medical translation services, one should check the certification of a company, customer reviews, and the expertise of the translators within a translation entity, among other qualities. The next step is to get a quotation of the prices. Lastly, there is a need for regular collaboration with the translating entity to ensure that all translations are up to date and accurate.
