Hospital ‘sensitive to all cultural needs’
Tuesday December 18, 2007 -- Jason Thompson
At Montfort Hospital, good communication is essential to the provision of healthcare.

As the only community hospital in the Ottawa region to offer fully bilingual services in Canada’s two official languages, Linda Lessard, the quality and risk management director, says Montfort Hospital rarely gets a request for an interpreter.

When an interpreter is required, which only happens once or twice a year, it’s usually for Cantonese-speaking people or those with hearing impairments.

“Montfort offers bilingual health care services, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, the only hospital in our region capable of doing so,” Lessard says.

“As an institution dedicated to providing quality healthcare to the Franco-Ontarians minority, Montfort is very sensitive to all cultural needs.”

By catering to people who speak a language other than English, Dr. Michael Baker, the physician-in-chief at the University Health Network, says hospitals are able to foster a safe environment for patients. One of the most visible ways interpreters help foster patient safety is when it comes to prescribing and dispensing medication.

Lessard says interpreters also have an important role to play when it comes to prescribing medications to people who do not speak English or French.

“(The) interpreter’s role goes beyond simply understanding the prescription of medications,” she says. “Understanding the diagnostic, the options of treatment, outpatient follow-ups and continuity of care are other important safety issues.”

As a community hospital, Lessard says family members are often relied upon to provide interpretations and are often encouraged to participate in the patient’s treatment plan.

Montfort’s official policy on the use of interpreters states that:

• The interpreter is the voice of the patient; the interpreter must be told and understand the importance of communicating everything the patient says without trying to summarize or interpret the patient’s words
• The care giver has to be aware of situations where exchanges between the interpreter and the patient seem longer than the information relayed to the care giver by the interpreter
• The care giver must ask the interpreter to relay to the patient all the discussions he may have with the treating team member or members
• The care giver must ask the patient to repeat all the information transmitted by the interpreter, and ask the interpreter to repeat exactly what the patient says

— With files from Deron Hamel.