The Increasing Importance of Medical Interpretation Services

Translating from one language to another can be a tricky business, but when it comes to providing medical interpretation tricky business becomes serious business, and therefore there is little room for error.  

One problem many hospitals and doctor offices run into is communicating with patients and lacking a complete understanding of their patient's overall health needs. Often times medical professionals must rely on the patient's friends and family members to help close that communication gap between the medical professional and the patient. Unfortunately, however, as the case may be sometimes, relying on family members to be the communication bridge between doctors and patient may lead to serious, if not fatal, consequences.             

Regrettably, there are too many stories and noted cases where the lack of professional interpretation services caused a misdiagnosis or grave misunderstanding of the patient's true medical needs.       

To fill that gap, hospitals and other medical professionals have turned to remote interpretation services, connecting medical professionals and patients via professional interpreters who work from their home office or in-house for a local translation service company. While these interpreters help to fill that gap and provide a valuable service to hospitals and medical offices the world over, there is still some room for error since remote technology can never truly replace the valuable expertise of a live medical interpreter. 

Despite advances, and the great strides taken by many state and local governments to close that communication gap, the factor of the matter remains, that the need for professional interpreters specialized in medical terminology still exists throughout many parts of the United States, as well as all around the world. While the goal of providing medical interpretation to every corner of the world may never be realized, NGO's and many for-profit organizations are working to try to help close that gap, as the need for medical interpretation services will only grow in some parts of the world with ever growing and ever-aging populations that will require medical treatments along with interpreting services.     

To help ease into this quagmire, it will be important for governments at every level to begin focusing some of their attention and their energy on creating programs that will encourage talented people with the drive and desire to become translators and interpreters in order to ensure that the future of our medical services can strive and perform at the same levels of service regardless of how. or in what language, that service is delivered. 

__________________________________________________________________________________

Concordis Language Services is a professional translation and interpretation services provider based in Massachusetts, USA. Concordis Language Services helps companies and non-profit organizations communicate their message and with their clients throughout all the world. For 2016, the company is looking to continue to develop its network of professional interpreters and provide valuable training and resources to interpreters in order to help foster positive working relationships among clients and service providers. For more information about our company visit us at: www.concordislanguageservices.com

Some Tips and Suggestions for Translators and Service Providers.

Today, we want to focus our article on the people and resources that help us to succeed in providing our clients and customers with the translation services they expect from us. 

It is perhaps little known, translators are often overlooked and under-appreciated when we think of the entire translation process. They are the unseen writers, editors, and linguists who toil away helping to make sense of the thoughts, ideas, and expressions written one language and translated into another. They are, perhaps, the unsung heroes of a plethora of literary works (many of which are known throughout the entire world), technical documents, as well as important business agreements worth millions.  

With that in mind, we would like to offer some helpful advice to the independent and freelancing translator, proofreader, as well as editor, that reach out to other translation companies by sending their CV or resumes, or respond to the job openings that are occasionally posted on various employment websites found throughout the web. 

1) Please be as specific as possible when addressing the recipient of the e-mail, ensuring to outline the important facts and details about yourself or the purpose for which you are contacting us, in a straightforward and concise manner. 

2) Do not ignore detailed instructions given on how to best contact a project manager or vendor manager, by thinking that because you call the agency's office that your resume will be seen or given top priority. On the contrary, most translation companies do not want to be contacted by service providers by phone. Please do not call us to offer your services; An e-mail or responding to a job posting, in the manner in which is asked, is the preferred method of communication. Unless you are calling because you would like to know the status of your outstanding invoices, and you are calling to remind us of an overdue amount that is owed, e-mail is quicker and more convenient than the sound of a phone that is ringing, while the project manager or vendor manager is in the middle of an important task. 

3) Do not inflate or exaggerate your abilities. As the old saying goes, honesty is the best policy. When you possess the right skills and requirements, any attempt at overselling yourself is unpleasant and a turn-off to the receiver, and rarely receives positive feedback in return. Hint: Do not claim to be able to translate 10K words in less than 24 hours when in reality you can only translate 3000 words, even if there was that one time when you managed to squeeze out 7000 words because the project was "URGENT!".  It is our opinion that is always better to give a "ballpark figure" than too claim too a high a number. Within the translation industry, and in most cases, quality trumps quantity. We are unaware of any project manager that takes joy in receiving a translation of 6K words, full of errors and mistranslated terms, which will only lead to having to re-assign the project to another translator, delays, and an awful business relationship between the translator and the translation company. 

4) Do not undersell yourself. In our opinion, (and judging by recent experience) it is far more displeasing and disheartening to receive an offer for the provision of translation services which undersells the translator's potential than to receive one that overstates the translator's skills and abilities. As previously stated, honesty is the best policy. If you are in possession of a certain skill set or knowledge and it is pertinent to the matter at hand, perhaps you should consider mentioning it -- Just make sure to leave out all the "bragging" which may or may not be well deserved. 

A second point that we would like to make about underselling -- and one that is usually a very sensitive one -- is on the topic about rates. Most people reading this, are well aware about the laws of supply and demand. When the supply of a certain type of product is service is more than demand, more often than not prices come down. However, there also exists the matter of undercutting the competition by advertising your services for a price that is far below the going rate. Perhaps not everyone will agree with us on this point, however, cheaper isn't always better, and receiving a valuable service that is worth a certain price at a lower and/or discounted rate isn't always better. It sometimes leaves an undesirable aftertaste, which may sometimes leave you wondering "why?". 

As service providers (translation companies included) we must ensure not to undersell our services in the attempt to chase that next Dollar, British Pound, Russian Ruble, (or whatever currency you gladly accept). In economics, nations usually declare economic warfare among each other by trying to outdo the other by making their currencies more attractive to potential investors, businesses, and other stakeholders, by sometimes deflating the value of their currency to foolish rates, which in the end, causes economic stress on everyone. Let us not do that to ourselves or to our industry. We must all take stock of our skills, our abilities and true worth, so that in doing so, we will know what our clients are willing to pay in order to obtain the skill set or service we possess. 

Sometimes receiving an offer of 0.08-0.11 a word is preferable to the offer of 0.035 per word promised at lightning speed. Not to be offensive toward are readers, however, what are some of you running? A business or a translation sweat shop, running yourselves ragged, to the point where you will be useless to yourselves, your clients, and those in your life that may depend on you? We must remember that there is always a happy medium to everything. Extremism is rarely a good thing.  

5) Making Demands -- Unless there exists an oral or written contract between us, let's skip over the part where we demand something from the other and jump right to the negotiating table where we can calmly, and with care and precision, spell out all of the terms on which we can agree, in order to proceed with delivering the products and services that the public expect from us. Do you agree or disagree with our suggestions? Can you come up with some tips and suggestions that you think we might have missed? Comment below!