Med-RT Interpretive Services

It's an all too common situation where a doctor or nurse struggles to give the best care they can, hampered by a language barrier with the patient. A situation that is only to get worse as the U.S. population of people with Limited English Proficiency (LEP grows) - an estimated at 21M+ and growing according to the AMA. Such language barriers are a serious threat to quality of care, preventing healthcare workers from obtaining an accurate history and description of the problems, or communicating diagnoses and treatment advice, or even getting "conformed consent". This assumes that patients actually seek treatment in the first place, since encounters can provoke great anxiety, culture clash, unnecessary expense and even risk of adverse outcome. Once treated in most cases the language barriers give rise to poor or no patient follow-up, patient non-compliance with treatment plans and medication regimens, and overall patient dis-satisfaction with their health care.

On premises interpreters cannot cover all languages all the time and are expensive (providers are prohibited by law from asking patients to pay for LEP services) and using the telephone falls short due to the inability to perceive essential non-verbal communication or for the hearing impaired.

Med-RT Telemedicine Peering™ of Interpreters provides an effective solution by:

Enabling high-definition video communication between patient, healthcare provider, and interpreter. The results are improved quality of health care, enhanced patient compliance, reduced risk of medical errors, and elimination of the additional costs for increased use of emergency services and diagnostic teststhat occur when language is a barrier.

Example ASL Interpreter

Patent-pending matching of the patient with the most appropriate interpreter using intelligent, dynamic, configurable (policy-based), multi-dimensional mapping. Example dimensions include:

Patient Location (e.g. ED)		Response/Wait Time (e.g 0 mins)
Special Needs (e.g. Deaf)		Gender (e.g. Male)
Language (e.g. Chinese)		Dialect (e.g.Mandarin)
Certification (e.g. NIC)		Additional Skills (e.g. MD)
Preferred (e.g. John Smith)		Re-Use Last If Available (e.g. Yes)
Cost Limit (e.g. $50 per hour)

Using our Command and Control Pad available resources are identified, matched, and automatically connected. Configuration can be as simple or as complex as required. At its most basic the user just need select from a predetermined list, for example, "ASL Interpreter - John Smith".

Access to multiple resource sources - either your own, from other hospitals/facilities in our network, or from Med-RT 3rd party service partners. In cases where you have your own internal interpreters these will be utilized first, but when your own interpreters do not have the appropriate skill-set or are unavailable/busy then you can tap into the other resources available through the Med-RT network. Conversely, when your own interpreters are idle they can be made available on the network on a chargeable basis, i.e. revenue generating when not being used by you.

	Example 1 Hospital with no internal interpreters Patient requires Chinese/Mandarin Available Chinese/Mandarin interpreter identified Interpreter from Med-RT 3rd party service partner Interpreter connected
	Example 2 Hospital with no internal interpreters Patient requires Spanish Available Spanish interpreter identified Interpreter from another hospital within the network whose interpreters are made available when not in-use by the hospital itself Interpreter connected
	Example 3 Hospital with their own internal interpreters Patient requires Spanish Available Spanish interpreter identified In-house interpreter Interpreter connected
	Example 4 Hospital with no internal interpreters Patient requires Spanish Available Spanish interpreter identified (in-house interpreter unavailable) Interpreter from another hospital within the network whose interpreters are made available when not in-use by the hospital itself Interpreter connected