COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 18, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Health care organizations continually face challenges to accommodate increasingly diverse patient populations. Imagine having a medical need, let alone an urgent one, and finding that the people there to treat you do not speak your language. An already stressful situation has just intensified.
Ochsner Health System has partnered with Language Access Network (LAN) to ensure all of its patients have equal access to effective communication with their healthcare providers. LAN provides interpretation services in over 210 languages for limited English proficient patients, and American Sign Language for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing, through the use of Martti™ (My Accessible Real-Time Trusted Interpreter). Martti is LAN's state-of the-art system connecting the highest quality, trained medical interpreters with doctors and patients round-the-clock, via live video at the touch of a button. Martti allows patients, providers and interpreters to actually see each other while communicating in a HIPAA compliant environment.
"New Orleans attracts a high number of tourists from all over the world and our ability to communicate with each of them is critical to ensure we are able to provide appropriate health care," explains Stacy Calvaruso, Ochsner Health System's Assistant Vice President of Patient Access Services. "The Martti units allow us to do just that."
Healthcare providers at Ochsner Heath System embrace Martti as their personal translation tool and the units have had a tremendous amount of usage, especially in the Emergency Department, where time is particularly of the essence. "They can quickly access the portable units and, because of the ease of connecting with an interpreter, they are able to provide care much faster than they were with the process we previously had in place," Calvaruso added.
About Language Access Network, LLC
Language Access Network, LLC ("LAN") is the leader in trusted healthcare communications, providing video remote interpretation (VRI) services to hospitals and other medical venues nationwide. Physician owned and solely focused on healthcare, LAN has unique insight into how to drive better outcomes, improve patient satisfaction and be a true partner to its client hospitals. Targeted towards Limited English Proficient and Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing patients, LAN provides its rapidly growing client base of over 350 medical facilities with 24/7/365 access to the highest quality & trained interpreters available via its centralized video language centers.
About Ochsner Health System
Ochsner Health System is southeast Louisiana's largest non-profit, academic, multi-specialty, healthcare delivery system. Driven by a mission to Serve, Heal, Lead, Educate and Innovate, coordinated clinical and hospital patient care is provided across the region by nine hospitals, both owned and managed, and more than 40 health centers in Louisiana. Ochsner has been named the Consumer Choice for Healthcare in New Orleans for 17 consecutive years and is the only Louisiana hospital recognized by U.S. News & World Report as a "Best Hospital" across 8 specialty categories.