Let’s hear it for excellence in hospital emergency rooms. Over the past year emergency care has taken a quantum leap forward by connecting emergency room personnel with non-English speaking patients by videoconferencing with a live translator.

Picture this scenario: a Japanese tourist gets taken to a hospital emergency room when he collapses outside his hotel. The hospital admits the man, but no one working the shift speaks Japanese, so communication is reduced to charades and rudimentary hand gestures at best.

Such a scenario can be scary, even deadly. But now events like this are becoming a thing of the past. Services such as the Language Access Network and The Health-Care Interpreter Network have language translators available 24/7, and they use point of care videoconferencing.

So now, when our Japanese tourist finds himself in an emergency room with no one to translate for him, the hospital can place a videoconferencing monitor next to the bed and connect with one of the translator services. The Japanese translator can see and hear the patient, immediately convey to the doctor what is being said, and then ask questions back to the patient for the doctor.

Some of these services have translators for more than 150 languages. This is a huge step forward for emergency care — and a fantastic example of workplace excellence.

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