Today, many hospitals, clinics and group medical practices find it very challenging to provide quality ASL and spoken language interpretive services. An increase in the limited english proficiency (LEP) patient population, legal mandates, the increased importance of the patient experience in meeting new healthcare guidelines and the management challenges of delivering interpreting to the emergency department and OB/GYN stretch budgets and staff. Many interpreting departments are getting pressure to cut costs and still retain the quality of patient care and compliance that your internal customers have come to expect. InDemand can help.
VRI Doesn’t Replace, but Supplements Your Existing Solutions
InDemand’s approach begins with the realization that no one solution (in-person interpreting, video remote interpreting or telephonic) is best for all circumstances and that a combination of the three will deliver the best combination of patient satisfaction and cost efficiency.
Today, many hospitals and clinics are using a combination of staff and contractor in-person interpreters, supplemented by telephonic interpreting for languages that are less common in the patient population. This leads to higher costs and the highest cost per patient encounter for interpretive services.
Before: Cost per Encounter: $85
In addition to higher costs, this approach can lead to other problems:
- Scheduling headaches
- Missed or late appointments
- Waits while the interpreter travels from one part of the hospital to another
- Privacy issues
A Balanced Approach
By adding a third option, video remote interpreting, to the mix, hospitals and clinics can lower their cost per patient encounter by anywhere from 30% to 70%.
After: Cost per Encounter: $28
This approach can also lead to the following benefits:
- Fewer scheduling issues
- Quicker access to interpreting services for departments like emergency
- Ability to handle more patients without a proportional increase in budget
- Improved patient satisfaction, particularly compared to telephonic
Video Remote Interpreting Delivers High Satisfaction at a Lower Cost
On-site interpreting is highly visual and typically delivers the highest levels of patient satisfaction. Telephonic interpreting is lower in costs, but typically results in lower satisfaction among both patients and health care providers. Video Remote Interpreting delivers the best of both worlds.
Improve Patient Care and Satisfaction
We had a 4-week infant we had to intubate. Mother was sitting in the chair by the door and we had the [interpreter] talking to her while we worked on the baby. It was great to be able to work and have someone see and communicate with the mom.Meagan, Nurse, Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital
Patients and clinicians like Video Remote Interpreting. It is more personal than telephonic interpreting, and reduces the scheduling headaches and missed or late appointments typically found when using in-person interpreters. It is convenient to use, and in the vast majority of cases, an interpreter is available within 15 seconds. This increases patient and clinician satisfaction, and results in fewer complaints.
The Highest Quality End-to-End Solution
A better video quality than anything we looked at.John, IT Manager, Swedish Medical Center
If users or clinicians have a bad experience with video remote interpreting (frozen screens, poor quality audio or video, long wait times, unqualified interpreters) they will stop using the solution and your projected savings will never be realized. That’s why it’s important to choose a solution with the following properties:
- Custom-developed for medical interpreting
- Single click access to interpreters
- VRI and telephonic on one system
- Secure communication exceeding HIPPA standards
- Male/Female preference selection
- Privacy curtain
- Intelligent call routing
- Remote monitoring of calls
Increase Staff Efficiency through comprehensive reporting and monitoring
InDemand provides comprehensive reporting, a management dashboard, and analytics. All interpreting encounters are automatically logged in our system and available to our customers online in real time. This includes data such as date/time,length of encounter, interpreter name, customer location, customer identifier, the call center that took the call, if it was a test call or not, and more.
Ensure Compliance
The mandates of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) require that all medical facilities ensure effective communication with deaf individuals. In addition, privacy laws prevent a family member or friend from interpreting. InDemand Interpreting helps hospitals comply with all federal and state laws requiring interpretive services.
Implement VRI Quickly
InDemand provides each new customer with a customized rollout plan including equipment delivery, on-site check out of the equipment, a network assessment, user training, train the trainer sessions, and frequent check ups during your first 120 days.