3 ms·

Is no one going to address the elephant in the room? If you're in a country where the lingua franca is X, you need to be able to speak X or life will be difficu

Is no one going to address the elephant in the room? If you're in a country where the lingua franca is X, you need to be able to speak X or life will be difficult. I'm not sure why the onus is on every hospital to become a kind of mini united nations here.

umeshunni 5y ago
Many hospitals advertise internationally and rely on medical tourism of various sorts. You can't expect a 70 year old heart patient flown in from Taiwan to Phoenix to learn English for their surgery.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  I think if you're advertising internationally for international patients, it becomes reasonable to expect you to have translators on staff.
paxys 5y ago
Tourism (including medical tourism) is a thing, as is telemedicine. In general, doctors and hospitals aren't in the business of turning away people just because they speak the "wrong" language.
- google234123 5y ago
  To be fair, most the people only speaking Spanish in the US aren’t here for tourism.
jka 5y ago
People travel recreationally, for business, and sometimes out of necessity to places where they don't speak the local language - perhaps you, friends, or family have, or will in future, experience those kinds of travel. Medical emergencies (or, to be honest, routine medical care) can be required for anyone, anywhere, for no particular reason. Care workers are no doubt familiar with that. For people to want to improve the situation for hospitals doesn't seem bad if it's possible. Do you think that we cannot achieve better?
- LAC-Tech 5y ago
  People travel recreationally, for business, and sometimes out of necessity to places where they don't speak the local language - perhaps you, friends, or family have, or will in future, experience those kinds of travel. Sure, my wifes English is very good but not perfect. I accompany her so I can give quick translations to medical terms she might not know. If we ever bring her parents here to live, guess whose job it's going to be to make sure they understand doctors? Well, mostly hers... but you get my point. The onus is on us. I have no expectation that every hospital should be able to communicate in every language on earth.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - jka 5y ago
    Thanks - that all makes sense, and I agree that generally it makes sense to navigate life with realistic expectations. Having optimism, and deciding to challenge existing limitations can both be useful too, though. > I have no expectation that every hospital should be able to communicate in every language on earth. I like the way you stated that. At first it made me think about how to improve translations. Now it's making me wonder whether there is a more universal common medical language (in many situations, I think that human care for each other doesn't require much communication at all).
jspash 5y ago
I recently went to Poland for a quick 2 day holiday. Felt great before I left. Felt great while I was there. Tested positive for covid the morning I was supposed to fly home. Fast forward a bit and I'm in the back of an ambulance while my partner was on the plane back home. They put me up in a hotel for 10 days. Fed me 3 times a day. Checked on me twice a day. And on day 10, opened the door and I was on my own. How I could have managed that without Google translate, I don't know. None of the doctors or nurses spoke more than a few words of English. And I could barely say hello, goodbye or thank you. (I can now!) As you say, life would have been difficult. It was difficult even with google translate. But it made the interactions much easier on both parties involved. I would hope that if someone was visiting my country on holiday, or to visit their relatives, and happened to get sick, that the hospital would do all they could to communicate with them and not treat them like they shouldn't even be there.
- LAC-Tech 5y ago
  Right, but if you decided to move to Poland - you'd realise you probably need to speak Polish, right?
  - detaro 5y ago
    Since you started by suggesting hospitals don't need this capability: So because one reason why people might turn up at a hospital not speaking the language isn't "valid" in your eyes, hospitals shouldn't prepare for any people that don't speak the language? (And your example, Poland, has a pretty big influx of people right now who had different priorities than ensuring they speak the language first)
    - LAC-Tech 5y ago
      What a weirdly hostile response. Not only are you wielding scare quotes against me, but they're not even words I used - not once did I say "valid". HN really is a stifling place whenever the discussion veers anywhere close to politics. I give up, you win.

umeshunni 5y ago

Many hospitals advertise internationally and rely on medical tourism of various sorts. You can't expect a 70 year old heart patient flown in from Taiwan to Phoenix to learn English for their surgery.

thaumasiotes 5y ago
I think if you're advertising internationally for international patients, it becomes reasonable to expect you to have translators on staff.

paxys 5y ago

Tourism (including medical tourism) is a thing, as is telemedicine. In general, doctors and hospitals aren't in the business of turning away people just because they speak the "wrong" language.

google234123 5y ago
To be fair, most the people only speaking Spanish in the US aren’t here for tourism.

jka 5y ago

People travel recreationally, for business, and sometimes out of necessity to places where they don't speak the local language - perhaps you, friends, or family have, or will in future, experience those kinds of travel. Medical emergencies (or, to be honest, routine medical care) can be required for anyone, anywhere, for no particular reason. Care workers are no doubt familiar with that. For people to want to improve the situation for hospitals doesn't seem bad if it's possible. Do you think that we cannot achieve better?

LAC-Tech 5y ago
People travel recreationally, for business, and sometimes out of necessity to places where they don't speak the local language - perhaps you, friends, or family have, or will in future, experience those kinds of travel. Sure, my wifes English is very good but not perfect. I accompany her so I can give quick translations to medical terms she might not know. If we ever bring her parents here to live, guess whose job it's going to be to make sure they understand doctors? Well, mostly hers... but you get my point. The onus is on us. I have no expectation that every hospital should be able to communicate in every language on earth.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- jka 5y ago
  Thanks - that all makes sense, and I agree that generally it makes sense to navigate life with realistic expectations. Having optimism, and deciding to challenge existing limitations can both be useful too, though. > I have no expectation that every hospital should be able to communicate in every language on earth. I like the way you stated that. At first it made me think about how to improve translations. Now it's making me wonder whether there is a more universal common medical language (in many situations, I think that human care for each other doesn't require much communication at all).

jspash 5y ago

I recently went to Poland for a quick 2 day holiday. Felt great before I left. Felt great while I was there. Tested positive for covid the morning I was supposed to fly home. Fast forward a bit and I'm in the back of an ambulance while my partner was on the plane back home. They put me up in a hotel for 10 days. Fed me 3 times a day. Checked on me twice a day. And on day 10, opened the door and I was on my own. How I could have managed that without Google translate, I don't know. None of the doctors or nurses spoke more than a few words of English. And I could barely say hello, goodbye or thank you. (I can now!) As you say, life would have been difficult. It was difficult even with google translate. But it made the interactions much easier on both parties involved. I would hope that if someone was visiting my country on holiday, or to visit their relatives, and happened to get sick, that the hospital would do all they could to communicate with them and not treat them like they shouldn't even be there.

LAC-Tech 5y ago
Right, but if you decided to move to Poland - you'd realise you probably need to speak Polish, right?
- detaro 5y ago
  Since you started by suggesting hospitals don't need this capability: So because one reason why people might turn up at a hospital not speaking the language isn't "valid" in your eyes, hospitals shouldn't prepare for any people that don't speak the language? (And your example, Poland, has a pretty big influx of people right now who had different priorities than ensuring they speak the language first)
  - LAC-Tech 5y ago
    What a weirdly hostile response. Not only are you wielding scare quotes against me, but they're not even words I used - not once did I say "valid". HN really is a stifling place whenever the discussion veers anywhere close to politics. I give up, you win.