A Language Access Company or Language Service Company may be new to you as a healthcare industry professional, but most likely, your organization is already working with one. It’s important to understand the obligations of working in healthcare and the need to provide equitable access to comprehensible healthcare information, and for that, a Language Access Company may be your best choice.
What is a Language Access Company?
Language Access Companies offer a particular set of services, including translation, interpretation, and other language-related services, specifically in order to maximize access to a service. The Department of Justice, for instance, desires that no one receive a less than just outcome from an interaction with their office due to misunderstanding, so they create Language Access Plans with Language Access Companies specifically to promote greater understanding between the citizens they serve and their workers.
What Services Are Provided by a Language Access Company?
- Interpretation – Language access providers can either interpret over the phone, via video call, or in person to make sure that someone having a voice conversation is getting in-the-moment comprehension help.
- Translation – Having translated versions of forms and documents can help provide greater access to services.
- Localization – These services involve understanding that no language is a single monolith, but rather a network of local dialects. Excellent linguists can tell whether a speaker or writer is working from a particular region or zone within a language and make sure they are translated or interpreted accurately.
- Fluency assessment for Non-English languages – Fluency assessments provide a quality control mechanism for Non-English languages spoken by staff ensuring competency in both the target language as well as terminology specific to a healthcare setting.
Why Do Healthcare Organizations Need a Language Access Company?
Healthcare organizations, especially large ones, have a wide variety of customers or patients, many of whom may have preferred languages other than English or the native language of your healthcare company. A Language Access Company does more than what one individual translator or interpreter can do. By connecting you to a web of resources and providing multi-language support, they can make it possible to confidently offer language services on demand to the populations you serve while ensuring you achieve regulatory compliance.
Are you ready to start working with a Language Access Company? Contact us today.
