Getting started After reviewing the new guidelines, learn more about people in your community. The 2000 census data are not yet available, but other sources can reveal local language needs. Contact school systems and community agencies. Once language needs are identified, consider steps for provision of oral interpretation. The ISMA Communications Department surveyed Indiana hospitals and learned that most have resources available to physicians.
Hospitals have lists of staff and community volunteers who speak foreign languages.
Click here for information about languages spoken in your county and resources at local hospitals. The ISMA also has information about telephone language and translation services. For each language group with fewer than 100 persons, provide written notice of the right to receive oral interpretation of written materials in the primary language of the group. Even when written translations are not dictated by need, agencies and providers still must provide oral interpretation of written documents, if necessary, to ensure meaningful access for a LEP person. As a physician, therefore, your patients need not be limited to a particular geography.