Jinny Bromberg Presents at National Health Care Interpreter Conferences

Jinny Bromberg, President of translation agency Bromberg & Associates, delivered two presentations last month at the Second Annual Membership Meeting of the National Council of Interpreting in Health Care and at the First Annual Southeast Regional Interpreter Conference. Both events took place in Atlanta, GA.

The conferences were dedicated to improving quality language access in health care for population with limited English proficiency (LEP). Both forums brought together a wide range of the industry stakeholders: health-care legislators and policymakers, accrediting organizations, health-care providers, academic institutions, and language services providers. The key topics of discussions were Interpreter Training and Education; Interpreting Program Quality; Interpreting Program Funding; Standards for Training; and Community Building.

In both presentations, Jinny Bromberg gave an overview of Michigan’s medical language services specifically for Southeast Michigan and what steps her agency takes to advance the quality of those services. According to Federal regulations, those health-care providers who receive federal financial assistance are obligated to provide LEP patients with meaningful language access to medical services and use only qualified interpreters. Unlike in other states, such as Washington, California, Oregon, Massachusetts, Iowa, Michigan has no provisions requiring medical interpreters to undergo testing and certification procedures prior to starting their professional practice. The lack of quality control over the language services in Michigan and shortage of educational opportunities for interpreters are matters of serious concern in the state, where over 8% of population are speaking language other than English at home. As a member of the National Council of Interpreting in Health Care, Bromberg works to improve the value of interpretation services in the following key areas: medical interpreter education, health-care provider education, and community education on quality language access.

Mary Hester, one of the conference attendees had this to say regarding Bromberg’s presentation, “Many states experience similar problems with regard to quality of language services. Most of the industry stakeholders count on hospitals and government agencies to make a change. However, very few private translation agencies allocate resources to develop efficient screening and education of medical interpreters. I applaud Bromberg & Associates staff for their effort.”

To find out more about the topics covered or to schedule Jinny to speak at your association, company, or conference, contact us.