Non-English Speakers Get Assistance
Silvina Amador goes to Holland Hospital every week for vaccines and iron supplements for anemia. When she first started going to the hospital years ago, there was a Spanish-language barrier. There was no one to interpret for her. Her husband or son would try to translate what the doctor or nurse told her. “Sometimes they didn’t know the names of certain things and they didn’t know how to explain them to me,” said Amador, of Holland Township. “I wanted to know the process of what was going on.”
Spanish-language interpreting is a large part of the interpreting program at the hospital. “We get between 1,500 and 1,700 requests for Spanish language interpreters each month,” said Karen Rigueiro, multicultural coordinator at the hospital. The hospital has three full-time interpreters, including Rigueiro, two part-time interpreters and six on-call interpreters.
