Important Requirements About Assisting Patients with Language Interpretation Needs

To Johns Hopkins Hospital employees and officers

Dear Colleagues,

One component of our commitment to delivering consistently safe, compassionate and quality care is making sure that communication between our patients and their medical providers is understandable and clear, particularly regarding symptoms, diagnosis, treatment plan and care instructions.

Patients who prefer to communicate in a language other than English, those who are deaf or hard of hearing, and those who are visually impaired may have additional communication needs, and we have the resources to assist these patients and their family members with language interpretation services. When providing these services, we must ensure that The Johns Hopkins Hospital is doing so according to regulatory and policy requirements.

To this end, all employees will be assigned mandatory training in myLearning. This online training will help you understand your responsibilities when assisting patients with additional communication needs. It will also help you understand The Johns Hopkins Hospital's updated policy on language access services, which will include changes to Epic.

Please set aside a few minutes to take the course today. Simply log into my.jh.edu, then tap myLearning under the education tab. Go to My Plan and look for the course, which is titled Communication Services for Patients, Family and Friends: Best Practices in the Use of Interpreter Services or you can type the course name in the catalog search. The training must be completed by Sept. 15, 2017.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital's Language Access Services policy, fast facts for virtual remote interpretation for nonclinicians and clinicians, federal regulations and other resources may be found at intranet.insidehopkinsmedicine.org/international/las-resources.html. For language interpretation services, contact Language Access Services at 410-614-4685 or intlcallcenter@jhmi.edu.

Thank you for helping us improve the experience of all of our patients and their families.

Redonda G. Miller, M.D., M.B.A.
President, The Johns Hopkins Hospital