Clinicians strongly preferred in-person interpreters over phone and video for engagement and continuity

Description #

In interviews, postpartum clinicians strongly preferred in-person interpreters over telephone and video modalities because in-person interpreters could engage as members of the care team, provide continuity for individual families, and even flag inconsistent information given across clinicians; telephone and video were described as "secondary options" beset by dropped calls, background noise, infection-control concerns, scarce/hard-to-locate devices, and setup delays. This is a provider-reported mechanism for why interpreter modality shapes communication quality and use.

"In-person interpreters were strongly preferred by clinicians in this study because of the interpreters' ability to meaningfully engage as a member of the health care team." (Jensen, 2023, p. 435)

"Telephone and video interpretation services were described by clinicians as 'secondary options' to in-person interpreters (HN001). Telephone interpretation service challenges were interpreter disruptions due to working out of their home, background noise, and dropped calls." (Jensen, 2023, p. 435)

"With video interpretation services, locating the devices can be challenging because health care team members felt there were too few of them available. 'It's kind of luck—basically a crapshoot if you can get an iPad for your patient' (H013)." (Jensen, 2023, p. 435)

Methods Context #

What? #ⓘ

The observable: clinicians' comparative appraisals of in-person versus telephone/video interpretation modalities and the reasons given for their preferences — a qualitative account of perceived modality strengths and weaknesses.

"In-person interpreters were strongly preferred by clinicians in this study because of the interpreters' ability to meaningfully engage as a member of the health care team." (Jensen, 2023, p. 435)

How? #ⓘ

Semistructured telephone interviews about facilitators/barriers and clinical implications of different interpretation modalities, inductively coded by three authors and synthesized into themes by discussion.

"Verbatim transcriptions from qualitative data were organized into a spreadsheet, in rows by participant identifier and in columns according to the interview question." (Jensen, 2023, p. 434)

Who? #ⓘ

14 inpatient postpartum-unit clinicians who requested interpreter services at a tertiary academic medical center in the southeastern United States, where in-person interpretation is the primary modality with telephone and contracted video/phone as backups.

"Options for contracted interpreters via phones and video through tablets are also available." (Jensen, 2023, p. 432)

Other Notes #

A midwife recounted an in-person interpreter alerting them that "the pediatrician said the exact opposite [about lactation to the same patient]" (H007, p. 435) — illustrating the team-integration value clinicians attributed specifically to in-person interpreters.

Caveats #

• Single-site small sample limited to Spanish-speaking postpartum patients limits generalizability The study drew small samples (50 couplets in the chart review; 14 clinicians interviewed) from a single tertiary academic medical center and restricted attention to Spanish-speaking patients. These descriptive proportions and themes therefore characterize one unit's local practice and may not generalize to other sites, other languages, or other care settings.