Penn State Health seeks input from bilingual employees by Sept. 8
The Penn State Health Language Interpreter Services Implementation Team is seeking input from bilingual employees through a brief 14-question survey due Wednesday, Sept. 8.
Employee participation will help the team develop a strategy to meet Penn State Health’s fiscal year goal to “to improve the experience of diverse patients whose primary language is other than English.”
The survey can be accessed via this link or the QR code.
The team’s goals are to ensure the health system’s language services program can provide quality and timely services to meet the needs of a diverse patient population and provide adequate interpreter support to deliver the best possible care.
Team members, which include administrators and clinicians from across the health system, recommended the survey to identify employees who speak languages other than English and those who are certified as language interpreters or translators. These individuals could potentially assist patients with non-medical and medical needs as part of their daily work.
Survey questions address language proficiencies, background in translation services, current training or certifications and interest in additional education.
During the past six months the team has reviewed existing workflow and operational procedures, updated vendor agreements, garnered stakeholder feedback and identified next steps toward developing a standardized systemwide strategy across all system entities. As a result of these efforts, the team recommended numerous improvements to leaders for translation and interpretation services.
Team members also plan to update and create new policies for consistency, inventory and evaluate commonly used documents for frequently used languages, identify language education/certification programs, refresh and build out communications platforms and assess equipment needs.
Direct questions about the survey to Mona Miliner, vice president, operations and Implementation Team project leader.
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