HHC is dedicated to maximizing healthcare outcomes for its patients. But when language barriers exist, it is difficult for healthcare givers and patients, alike, to communicate with confidence. Accurate language translation and interpretation services reduce medical errors and increase the patient's ability to participate fully in important healthcare decisions.

HHC's patients, who number over a million each year, speak about 100 different languages. HHC has decades of experience caring for those who speak little or no English. In fact, HHC has become a model that other hospital systems can replicate to meet communication guidelines established by the New York State Department of Health.

HHC's language services include:

• Telephonic Services: Enables all HHC facilities to have immediate access to professional interpretation services in 150 languages, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Print and electronic publications: HHC policies, health education materials, discharge instructions and many other written communications are available in the 11 "HHC languages" spoken by the majority of patients. The languages include Spanish, French, Haitian Creole, Chinese, Russian and Urdu. Portions of the HHC website are posted in Spanish.
• Specialized Medical Interpretation Training: HHC's 200 bilingual and multilingual staff and volunteers get medical interpretation training tailored to their professional needs.
• Multilingual Signage: HHC facilities display signage appropriate to their patient population; the signage has won national recognition from the Society for Environmental Graphic Design.
• TEMIS System: This system, Team/Technology Enhanced Medical Interpreting System (TEMIS), is in operation at Bellevue and Kings County hospitals and provides simultaneous interpretation using wireless technology.

HHC has invested some $30 million in recent years to support and expand these programs that improve communications with patients. HHC is also an enthusiastic partner of the NY immigration Coalition and other advocacy organizations that get the message to immigrations about the patient-centered care HHC offers everyone.

Click below to learn more about HHC's Language Services:

See Spanish language information about HHC services.

Visit the New York Immigration Coalition web site and read the new regulations.

See examples of HHC's multilingual messages to immigrant New Yorkers.

See and hear multilingual messages about HHC Options - our health care financial assistance program for all New Yorkers.