November 16, 2005
Translation Improvements Hailed

Emily Bregel
Columbia Spectator

Civil rights advocates gathered yesterday outside New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Washington Heights to celebrate a new program of translation and interpretation services for patients with limited English proficiency—the first step, they say, in a greater fight for comprehensive language access in all state hospitals.

Dozens attended a press conference led by Luis Tejada of the Mirabal Sisters Cultural and Community Center. The crowd included members of the Language Access Coalition, hospital patients, and state politicians, who have all pressured the hospital to change its language services program.

Community activists praised the hospital’s recent accomplishments, which include the hiring of a language access coordinator, expanded staffing for interpretation services, training for the entire staff of 20,000 employees and volunteers, and welcome signs in 10 different languages to help patients and visitors understand their rights.

The Language Access Coalition is comprised of Make the Road by Walking, the Mirabal Sisters Cultural and Community Center, the New York Civic Participation Project, San Romero Church and La Aurora. The groups are represented by New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.

The hospital, an affiliate of Columbia University Medical Center, released a statement yesterday that distanced its new language program from the coalition of community groups that attended the press conference. The release noted that the hospital has had interpretation services for years, and it asserted that the new program was not a result of the coalition’s persuasion.

According to the statement, “In implementing this program, we have sought the advice and counsel of many groups and individuals, including elected officials, community leaders, our hospital’s Community Advisory Board, local educators, and others. The Language Access Coalition and Make the Road by Walking were not among these groups.”

But community activists said they were optimistic about the possibilities of a cohesive neighborhood effort, and they insisted upon the need for further advancements in language services.

“The unity of the community is important,” Tejada said, surrounded by cheering community members who held signs in English and Spanish reading “Columbia Has Listened to Us” and “The People United Will Never Be Defeated.”

“This is the first step,” he added. “We need more—not only this hospital.”

The program changes at New York-Presbyterian came after months of legal and political pressure to provide improved language services. Community organizers held protests last summer and released a report entitled “Lost in Translation” in July. The report included patient testimonials of difficult and often embarrassing experiences at New York-Presbyterian, as well as a survey showing the hospital’s failure to provide interpretation services to the majority of its patients with limited English ability.

Grecia Abad, a Washington Heights resident and member of the New York Civic Participation Project, recounted a visit to the emergency room nine months ago with severe knee pain. She waited for hours for an interpreter who never arrived and claimed the hospital placed the burden on her put to find her own translator.

“That seems to be the main issue,” Abad said in Spanish. “The lack of communication and translators in the emergency room.”

Of the 105 Spanish-speaking patients interviewed for the study, 59 percent reported that they were confused about their medical treatment because they had not received language services. 70 percent were not informed of their right to translation services. Nearly 45 percent of New York City residents speak a language other than English at home, according to the 2000 census.

Some politicians also attended the press conference and spoke about the immediacy of the issue.

“The ability to communicate with your doctor is a matter of life and death,” said State Senator Eric Schneiderman (D-Upper Manhattan). “This is not an option, this is not a luxury. This is a requirement. And today we celebrate a great victory.”

The issue of language access and translation services in hospitals has been contentious for a number of years, but the fight has escalated in the past year as critiques from community members have become increasingly vocal.

“The patients have complained,” said Washington Heights resident Rosario Cepin, a member of San Romero Church, in Spanish. “So many people come to the hospital, and they have to leave and go to someplace else. ... We have been struggling for years and it was not until now that the community decided to work together.”

Activists drew on pre-existing legislation to put legal pressure on New York-Presbyterian. Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of national origin, and the New York State Patients’ Bill of Rights, enacted in 1986, mandates interpretation services for patients with limited English proficiency living in their service areas. The City Emergency Room Interpreter Law of 1986 requires that emergency rooms have interpreters available.

Supporters of farther-reaching language access programs denounced the lack of enforcement of this legislation in hospitals throughout New York state.

“This is a fundamental right,” said State Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat (D-Washington Heights), a vocal proponent for legislation that would strengthen language access requirements in hospitals statewide. “We won’t be satisfied that one hospital says they’re going to make things a little better. We want to make sure that there is a codified law that mandates that every hospital provides language services to their patients.”

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