Multilingualism in Healthcare a Prescription for Failure

Translation Errors are Common and Can Be Dangerous

WASHINGTON D.C. – A recent study published in the medical journal Pediatrics shows that healthcare translation errors are common and can be dangerous to patients who don’t speak English. The results come less than three years after then-President Clinton signed Executive Order 13166. This order requires hospitals receiving government money to provide translators for non-English speaking patients.

Dr. Glenn Flores and colleagues at the Medical College of Wisconsin examined the transcripts of 13 audiotaped visits of Spanish speaking patients to a pediatrics clinic. Six encounters involved an official hospital interpreter; seven involved an “ad hoc” interpreter like a nurse, social worker, or, in one case, an 11-year-old sibling.

The official interpreters made 231 errors; 53 percent of them were judged to have the potential to cause clinical problems. The ad hoc interpreters made 165 errors, and 77 percent of them were potentially dangerous. Among the errors made were:

• A parent was told to put steroid cream on an infant’s entire body instead of just the face.

• A mother was told to give her child an antibiotic for two days instead of ten.

• A parent was told to put an oral antibiotic in her child’s ears instead of his mouth.

• An interpreter told a mother not to answer questions about sexually transmitted diseases or drug use.

• A Central American woman could not understand a Puerto Rican slang term for mumps.

Interpreter errors can also put hospitals in legal trouble. A 22-year old man won a $71 million settlement because a group of paramedics and doctors misdiagnosed a brain clot. The man’s relatives used the Spanish word “intoxicado” to describe his ailment. They meant he was nauseated but the translator interpreted the word to mean intoxicated.

Executive Order 13166, signed into law on August 11, 2000, has created an environment where these translation errors can flourish. With that act, the federal government became officially multilingual, requiring any entity receiving federal monies to provide translators. Private physicians, clinics, and hospitals that accept Medicare and Medicaid must provide, at their own expense, translators for any language spoken by any patient.

“As we can see from these very serious translation errors, multilingualism in healthcare is dangerous, wasteful and misguided,” said Mauro Mujica, Chairman of U.S. ENGLISH. “Our newest immigrants are the most vulnerable to these communication errors and that fact underscores why we need to make a renewed effort to teach English to immigrants. Instead of burdening doctors and endangering immigrants with expensive regulations and questionable translation service provisions, why not take some money and provide more English classes for newcomers? That is a prescription for success for immigrants and all Americans.”

U.S. English, Inc. is the nation's oldest and largest non-partisan citizens' action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States. Founded in 1983 by the late Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California, U.S. English, Inc. (www.usenglish.org) now has more than 2 million members.