Bilingual/Bicultural Medically Trained Interpreters.

JRivera Associates’ interpreting services is focused solely on the health care system – nothing else. While other interpreter services may use non-medical personnel, our team is comprised exclusively of medically trained Medical Assistants and RNs-As such, we’ve taken a different approach in hiring and training of medical interpreters. We are a medical call center service provider that requires at least a Medical Assistant Certificate and six months in the medical field prior to hire. In addition, our unique ongoing training curriculum trains and tests the following:

• Fluency in Spanish and English, including regional varieties and common colloquialisms.
• Mastery in interpretation and translation.
• Cultural competence and an understanding of how to build trust with diverse Latino populations.
• Understanding of medical terminology, including HIPAA, health conditions and medical specialties.

Combined with a required Medical Assistant Certificate, our interpreters have undergone hundreds of hours of interpreter and medical training. Our hiring and training approach is supported by a recent study from the Annuals of Emergency Medicine which states that interpreter training of at least 100 hours has a major impact on reducing interpreter errors while improving quality and patient safety³.

3. Flores G, Abreu M, et al. Errors of Medical Interpretation and Their Potential Clinical Consequences. Annals of Emergency Med. 2012; 60:545-553. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ 22424655