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Coalition Tasked with Oversight of Health Interpreter Certification, Training
A coalition of health care professionals, interpreters and other stakeholders has created a commission tasked with developing and ensuring adequate training and certification for health care interpreters, AHA News Now reports. Specifically, the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters will collaborate with the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care to develop training standards for health care interpreters. In addition, the commission will use data from the field on knowledge, skills, performance and employers' expectations to create an accredited professional certification program for health care interpreters. However, AHA News Now notes that the certification program will not be based on any one specific training program or vendor's service package. Reflecting on the commission's impetus, one stakeholder, himself the president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Diversity in Health Management, noted that it would enhance the quality and professionalism of health care interpreters and allow patients and medical personnel "to focus on health care concerns rather than communication concerns, and that's a major step toward better quality care." (AHA News Now, 9/15/09)