Admittedly, healthcare translation requires high-level accuracy and precision. A debate lingers on about the insufficiency of the use of technology in healthcare translation. Its opponents assert that human translation is superior to machine or AI translation in the healthcare realm. However, we beg to differ.
Technology is a must-to-use in healthcare translation. Sometimes, there are limitations of time and other resources during healthcare translation. In such instances, technology comes in handy to provide a solution.
If you are skeptical about the role of technology in improving the accuracy and efficiency of healthcare translation, let’s explore the subject.
Increased quality and Accuracy of Services
Given the need to capture even the tiniest details of medical information during a healthcare process, there is a need for a tool that can record communication simultaneously. Even though human translators feature the highest potential of doing so, there is always a probability of human error.
Whenever healthcare stakeholders use technology during communication, there is a simultaneous capturing of information. This process sometimes happens in real-time, making it possible to create credible reference materials.
Whenever healthcare stakeholders use technology to capture information, it is always a fast way of generating raw data. Afterward, the data can undergo MTPE to refine and make it error-free. In return, healthcare stakeholders will have overcome the possibility of having erroneous data after using technology for translations.
Reduced Administration and Staff Burden
Is your healthcare facility facing a shortage of interpreters? Are you in need of immediate delivery of healthcare services? If you are facing these challenges, using technology to translate your speech-to-speech content is the solution you need.
If you use technology for healthcare translation, you do not need to worry about the lack of enough healthcare translators. You can translate your information quickly using technology and save a life by providing timely healthcare services.
The use of technology for translation also reduces healthcare operational costs because using technology for translation is cheaper than using human translators. So, the extra costs a healthcare facility could have used for translation can cover other operational costs.
Also, given the short time technology takes to undertake a translation process, your productivity can increase because you can attend to several patients.
Increased Mobility
Whenever a healthcare facility fails to secure a translator on time, it experiences a backlog of service demands. Some of these demands are life-threatening, and a service delivery delay can cause death or other irreversible consequences.
The use of technology for healthcare translation increases patient flow because there is always a standby translation tool. In other words, healthcare translation technology keeps the service delivery cycle in a health facility moving. In return, the medical facility offers sustainable healthcare services into the unforeseeable future.
The use of technology also keeps professional medical collaboration unending. Multilingual healthcare professionals working in a medical facility can share information, ideas, and handovers seamlessly without language barriers or the need for multiple translators.
Healthcare mobility also applies to the delivery of services wherever needed. Doctors often work in remote areas and cannot tag human translators when visiting marginalized or rural patients. Instead, they can use offline translation technology to translate their communication with such patients. Additionally, they can use translation technology as a point of language reference.
Improved Patient-Clinician Trust
Notably, trust between healthcare professionals and patients speeds up the recovery journey. It is also a prerequisite in healthcare delivery.
If the two parties use a middleman (human translator) during their communications, there may arise several misrepresentations that can sever the patient-clinician relationship. In return, the healing journey can take longer than expected.
The use of technology, especially in real-time, enables a healthcare professional to collect vital healthcare information from a patient in real-time. Also, it enables them to assure the patient that they will receive appropriate healthcare intervention because the professional understands their health condition comprehensively.
Improved Patient Care
The use of technology in healthcare is also responsible for improved patient care. Whenever a patient understands communication from healthcare providers, they feel satisfied by the received healthcare services.
Technology allows patients to ask questions and for healthcare professionals to answer them comprehensively. Also, technological healthcare translation services allow healthcare professionals to access patient records and quickly understand the patient’s conditions. In return, a patient feels that the healthcare professionals understand them, thus feeling at ease.
Failure to use technology for translating healthcare communication and information can result in a dichotomy between the patients and healthcare workers. Such a scenario can discourage the patient from continuing to receive healthcare services. In return, the patient’s health can deteriorate, and the medical facility can lose credibility and revenue.
Remember, whenever patient care improves, lives get saved in line with the overall objective of healthcare systems. Additionally, healthcare facilities become reputable, and it translates into operational sustainability. So, it is a win-win situation.
Saving Resources
Whenever health facilities use technology for translation, it costs less than engaging a human translator. Also, such a facility releases its staff to do other important tasks besides searching for a translator. It may seem like it is not a big deal, but medical staff can take a long time to find a translator who will again take a long time to get to the medical facility.
Remember, finding an emergency translator is very expensive. However, a medical facility can save much money by employing technology translation that can always be on standby.
So, technology becomes a high-value asset for medical facilities that want to save time and other resources during a translation process.
Reduced Waiting Time
If a medical facility employs technology for medical translation, it can predict whether a patient requires a physical hospital visit or they can receive medical interventions from home. Such a move relieves a patient of commuting to a hospital. Also, it enables a medical facility to reserve its resources for needy patients.
To achieve this objective, a healthcare professional does not need the services of a physical translator. All they need is to access the patient’s healthcare records, assess the progress, and advise accordingly. The professional may advise whether a patient needs to make a physical visit or they can receive remote advice that they can consume from home.
Without technology, a patient must come to a medical facility with physical health records. Afterward, they must meet a physical translator who, together with the healthcare professional, must translate the records to understand the healthcare professional. Finally, the healthcare professional must advise the patient accordingly.
To ascertain whether the trio must undertake the discussed process, the healthcare professional can use technological healthcare translation to assess the need for the process and propose it. If they overrule it, all credit can go to the translation technology that has made it possible.
High Translation Precision
Healthcare translation is a complex process. It calls for the subject matter or specialized experts who are savvy in their healthcare fields. Sometimes, these translators fail to match some medical content with their source text. This scenario may happen because it is hard to translate some terminologies into their target language.
To overcome the said challenge, healthcare facilities should use technology to translate medical information. Translation tools feature a rich library of terminologies and medical terms. For this reason, they are in a better position to translate medical content than humans. Remember, human memory is not as precise as machine memory.
So, if you want your healthcare content to get a high translation precision, engage machines or AI translation tools.
Improved Customer Services
Similar to other industries, the healthcare industry needs superior customer care services. Often, patients can call inquiring about your healthcare facility’s services. You must understand that these inquiries are not always whimsical. Some address emergency services that require immediate care.
It is also understandable that patients rush to nearby healthcare facilities whenever needed. This occurrence happens regardless of the cultural backgrounds of the patients. So, you may get a call, email, or chat from a patient who does not speak your language.
In such an instance, having a standby human translator who can translate all languages is impossible. However, technology can come in handy to provide the much-needed real-time translation that can save a life.
If you cannot translate communication in real-time whenever patients call, your customer service is deficient. In return, your healthcare facility may deny patient services that are readily available. What can happen if a patient realizes that such an occurrence happened? They may press charges or spread the news and damage your reputation.
So, investing in technological healthcare translation is one of the ways healthcare facilities can use it to improve their customer services. In return, they can provide their services to almost anyone who comes knocking.
The Bottom Line
According to LatinoBridge, a provider of medical translation services, healthcare translation plays a significant role in improving the accuracy and efficiency of healthcare translation. So, it is no longer a reserve of human translators.
So, it is time to invest in technology for your healthcare translation.
