1 6 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 9
A
t our ASC, 15%
to 20% of our
patients speak
Spanish as their pri-
mary language. For
many years, we've
partnered with East
Tennessee State
University's (ETSU)
Language and Culture
Resource Center
(LCRC), just a few
miles away, to arrange
as far in advance as we
could for interpreters
to be here for our
Latino patients when
they come in. But we
felt we should do
more, so we asked
LCRC to translate all
of the papers a patient needs to sign or take home as well. We had 12
sheets in all, and they charged us about $60. It took them about 3
weeks to finish the work. They also helped us put Spanish-language
content on our website. To confirm the translations were accurate, we
had one of our Latino doctors look them over — it's definitely impor-
tant to have a second pair of eyes make sure everything reads precise-
A BETTER UNDERSTANDING
Better Serving Spanish-Speaking Patients
• FOUND IN TRANSLATION Lisa Rickman, RN, holds one of numerous patient
forms and documents that a local university translated into Spanish.
Mountain
Empire
Surgery
Center
Ideas That Work
IW