Why Medical Translation Can Be a Matter of Life and Death?

When a patient enters a hospital, they put their life into the hands of the medical practitioners. But what if the medical practitioners and patients can’t communicate effectively because of differences in language? To every patient across the world, just one incorrectly translated word can be a matter of life and death. So, the answer to this solution is simple: certified medical translation services are not an option but an absolute requirement.

Critical Risk Areas

Medical translation plays a huge role in the communication between patients and healthcare providers, given the difficulty level of the medical language itself, particularly in the areas of diagnosis, medication prescriptions, and surgical operations.

The main area of concern is the ambiguity in medical terminology. For example, a Spanish-speaking patient may hear the word “intoxicado” and think it means “intoxicated with alcohol or drugs,” while the meaning intended was “poisoned.” Such a misunderstanding can lead to wrong treatment protocols, where the patient with a brain haemorrhage receives delayed care because of an translation error.

Electronic translation tools, although very advanced, are another minefield. They can be useful to fill gaps in informal communication but fail to pick up on the subtleties of medical language, thus making it difficult to understand symptoms, medication instructions, or procedural steps.

Ramifications of Wrong Translations

The consequences of poor medical translation go beyond mere inconvenience. Poor communication can lead to the wrong diagnosis, unnecessary procedures, or even medication-related errors.

For healthcare providers, such mistakes can result in legal action and loss of confidence. According to the American Medical Association’s survey, 43% of malpractice claims involving non-English-speaking patients mentioned communication as a contributing factor.

In addition to these obvious effects are the psychological consequences. Non-communicative patients become withdrawn and apprehensive, adding to the turmoil of recovery. According to a study in the UK, foreign language-speaking patients are threefold more likely than their native English-speaking patients to state dissatisfaction in regard to care.

Recommended Practices and Solutions

Now is the time for systematic change. All healthcare facilities should provide, at a minimum, trained medical translators who are available in person, by phone, and through video. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), translation services must be part of every telehealth platform, which continues to expand and evolve.

Another important solution is training healthcare professionals, providing language-access training to help providers recognize when they need professional translators and how to work with them. Medical facilities must also assess the accuracy and reliability of electronic tools before using them for important communications.

Funding is then allocated by healthcare systems to ensure that language services are accessible on a consistent basis. Such programs might be taken as models for other nations like Sweden, wherein healthcare facilities are reimbursed for translation costs.

The Bottom Line

The examples are clear: effective medical translation can save lives. For healthcare professionals, it implies that language access should be part of the area of focus when it comes to patient care. For patients, it is the right to be able to make oneself clear and understand the medical team.