National Certification for Healthcare Interpreters IMIA Conference Boston, October 6, 2007

Expert Panel on Certification leSharing5.htmlhttp://homepage.mac.com/brucedowning/Fi leSharing5.html Downloadable PDF file leSharing5.html

National Medical Interpreter Certification Survey

Panelists Holly Mikkelson, moderatorHolly Mikkelson, moderator Virginia Pérez-Santalla, American Translators Association (ATA)Virginia Pérez-Santalla, American Translators Association (ATA) Laurie Swabey, Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID)Laurie Swabey, Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) Jane Kontrimas, International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA)Jane Kontrimas, International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA) Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC)Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC) Rosario Nevado, California Healthcare Interpreting Association (CHIA )Rosario Nevado, California Healthcare Interpreting Association (CHIA )

American Translators Association

Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf

International Medical Interpreters Association

National Council on Interpreting in Health Care

California Healthcare Interpreting Association

Question 1 “Do you feel that efforts to move towards national, standardized, certification are well coordinated between your organizations and others? Or at some point, does some organization need to own the process to create a national, standardized certification, just as RID does for Interpreters for the Deaf? What process can we all agree on to figure out who will own and therefore lead these efforts? What ideas exist to establish an independent third-party arbitrator to guide the process and ensure an equitable representation of all stakeholders?” (from New Hampshire)

Question 2 “Most certifications or licensures act as limiters on the size of the available pool of qualified candidates, and consequently affect the supply/demand forces at work in that labor marketplace. Does our industry have plans to develop supply cost models (for forecasting purposes) to assess the potential impact of national certification on interpreter cost and interpreter availability? If supply cost models suggested higher costs, or reduced availability of qualified healthcare interpreters and therefore longer wait times to get an interpreter for providers and patients, would your organization continue to support a national certification?” (from California)

Question 3 “I would like to know how certification would affect the medical interpreters' status, in terms of liability, benefits and security. Would certified medical interpreters be required to have malpractice insurance, join a union, etc..... and if so, who would pay for it? Has anyone computed the cost of these benefits and figured a raise that would compensate for inflation and any costs for the past several years?” (from Massachusetts) “I would like to know how certification would affect the medical interpreters' status, in terms of liability, benefits and security. Would certified medical interpreters be required to have malpractice insurance, join a union, etc..... and if so, who would pay for it? Has anyone computed the cost of these benefits and figured a raise that would compensate for inflation and any costs for the past several years?” (from Massachusetts)

Question 4 “How are stakeholders defined? What mechanisms will be used during this process to maintain communication and updates to all stakeholders and interested parties?” (from California)

Question 5 “How will language pairs to be certified be selected? Assuming all language pairs will not be certified in the short term, what provisions will be made for those language pairs that are not subject to certification?” (from California) “How will language pairs to be certified be selected? Assuming all language pairs will not be certified in the short term, what provisions will be made for those language pairs that are not subject to certification?” (from California)

Question 6 “What kind of specific requirements do you think are necessary for certification of telephone interpreters in medical settings? Same question for video interpreters in medical settings.” (from Japan) “What kind of specific requirements do you think are necessary for certification of telephone interpreters in medical settings? Same question for video interpreters in medical settings.” (from Japan)

Thank you!