A solution to help healthcare practitioners and limited English proficient (LEP) speaking patients focus directly on quality healthcare rather than an inability to communicate with each other is now at hand. A new organization is now working to assure competency in language interactions in healthcare settings -- the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI).
Incorporated in July as an independent certification agency and 501(c)(6) organization, CCHI was formed by healthcare professionals, interpreters and stakeholders to develop and direct a comprehensive certification program for healthcare interpreters.
"For more than 20 years, the healthcare community and the people they serve have been facing a growing dilemma of not being able to communicate with each other, especially in a critical time of emergency and life-threatening situations," said Mara Youdelman, Chair of CCHI.
Youdelman, senior attorney for the National Health Law Program in Washington, DC, said the formation of CCHI is the culmination of many years of collaboration and work among a variety of stakeholders -- competent and qualified healthcare interpreters, clinicians, insurers and healthcare agencies.
"CCHI exists to be the one voice, with one set of industry-formed and approved standards, working to achieve an assurance of competency and proper training for healthcare interpreters through an accredited vendor-neutral professional certification program," said Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, CCHI Commissioner and Director of Interpreter Services & Community Partnerships with the University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics in Madison.
The new credentialing agency is staffed with an outstanding group of professionals selected as CCHI commissioners and advisors. In the next two years, commissioners will work to develop, implement and administer a comprehensive certification program for healthcare interpreters, who are CCHI's customers.
Items on the new commission's agenda include: