Important Information About Assisting Patients with Language Interpretation Needs

To Johns Hopkins Hospital vice presidents, directors, administrators and managers

Dear Colleagues,

Ensuring clear communication between our patients or their family members and their medical providers is a key component of our commitment to provide safe, compassionate and quality care. Patients who prefer to communicate in a language other than English, those who are deaf or hard of hearing, and those who are visually impaired may have additional communication needs. When assisting these patients with language interpretation, we must ensure that Johns Hopkins Medicine is doing so according to regulatory and policy requirements.

You will learn more about required training to help staff understand their responsibilities when assisting patients with additional communication needs, as well as Johns Hopkins Hospital's policy on language access services, which will include changes to Epic. It is anticipated that this training for all Johns Hopkins Hospital staff will begin on Aug. 17 and have a required completion date of Sept. 15. If you are a credentialed medical staff member, you will be in compliance with the language access training requirement once you complete the mandatory Annual Medical Update training, which is anticipated to begin on July 24 and will be available through Sept. 15.

In the meantime, please read and share the following information in written communications, conversations, meetings and presentations, and use it to answer questions.

Staff members are responsible for:

• Using professional interpreters or qualified bilingual staff every time they encounter a patient with additional communication needs. We provide interpretation services around the clock in 200 different languages, including sign language. (Please note: We do not allow minors to interpret and do not substitute family and friends for a professional interpreter. We also prohibit web-based translation programs and phone apps such as Google Translate.)
• Identifying a patient's preferred language and communication needs at the beginning of the patient encounter.
• Contacting Language Access Services at 410-614-4685 for guidance and support. This office is available around the clock with a team of professional interpreters and technologies, including virtual remote interpretation devices to assist patients and providers.
• Taking new mandatory training programs within the next few months, and maintaining annual mandatory training in the future.

Additionally, medical and clinical staff members are responsible for:

• Organizing and requesting communication services for patients throughout the course of their stay, specifically during medical discussions regarding the patient, the patient's condition, and treatment planning or management, including discharge instructions for the patient.
• Documenting in the patient's medical record an assessment of the patient's need for auxiliary aids and communication services and any services requested by or provided to the patient.

Johns Hopkins Medicine is committed to:

• Not discriminating against or excluding patients based on their communication needs.
• Providing communication assistance free of charge to all patients and family/friends involved in the patient's care.
• Providing three modalities of interpretation: over-the-phone interpretation, video remote interpretation and in-person Interpretation. For the fastest access to an interpreter and to avoid delays in care, Johns Hopkins Medicine encourages the use of over-the-phone interpretation and video remote interpretation.

Resources

• The Language Access Services policy, fast facts for virtual remote interpretation, federal regulations and other resources may be found at intranet.insidehopkinsmedicine.org/international/las-resources.html.
• For language interpretation services, contact Language Access Services at 410-614-4685 or intlcallcenter@jhmi.edu.

Thank you for helping us deliver a positive medical experience to all of our patients, regardless of their communication needs.

Sincerely,

Redonda G. Miller, M.D., M.B.A.
President, The Johns Hopkins Hospital