South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore has replaced a team of in-person interpreters that has helped Spanish-speaking patients navigate health care with digital and phone services, sparking concern among language access advocates.
Interpreters said they found out in mid-September their unit was being shut down after 22 years. Members of the 12-person unit were offered other positions at the hospital, officials said.
“Professional interpreters know the community, know the nuances in the different cultures,” said Cheryl Keshner, a Central Islip-based coordinator of the Long Island Language Advocates Coalition. “To replace them with telephone interpreters or iPads is not sufficient.”
The hospital also plans to use bilingual staff to help. Kushner said that would shortchange patients and staff.
“Interpreting is a skill,” she said. “It’s not something that just anyone who is bilingual can do. It will also take them away from their other jobs.”
New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health, which owns South Shore, said the language line had been available, is used across other hospitals in the system and is fast and accurate, Northwell spokesperson Miriam Sholder said in a statement.
“Our commitment to the Spanish-speaking community remains strong, and this decision is not about reducing services, it is about ensuring every Spanish-speaking patient has immediate, equitable access to interpretation,” Sholder said.
South Shore was the only hospital in the Northwell Health system that still had a unit of on-site interpreters. Other hospitals use iPads and phones that connect with a live interpreter or ask bilingual staff to assist.
The Long Island Language Advocates Coalition, which focuses on equal access to government agencies and programs for people who have limited English proficiency, started an online petition asking Northwell to rethink their decision to dissolve the unit.
They argue the change will especially hurt the large population of Latinos who seek services from the Bay Shore hospital from areas such as Brentwood, Central Islip and North Bay Shore. The team primarily translated for Spanish speakers, as well as those who spoke Quechua, an indigenous language spoken in South America.
“This comes at a time when many immigrants and their families are experiencing heightened levels of stress due to immigration enforcement, economic instability, and the loss of critical support systems,” the petition reads. “This has had a great impact on their health and well-being, particularly in the Latino community, which comprises nearly half of the hospital’s patient population.”
Berta Cevallos, a former language access services specialist at Northwell who helped establish the program at South Shore in 2003, said “machines can work at a certain level.”
“But in emergency rooms, labor and delivery, surgery … these are critical places where a mistake could be devastating,” said Cevallos, who now runs her own consulting program to educate aspiring interpreters. “How can you interview someone over the phone with mental health issues?”
The interpreters were members of 1199SEIU. The union said in a statement it was “outraged” the services will be outsourced but more cuts are to be expected because of the fight over health care funding in Congress.
“As front line health care workers, 1199SEIU members know that quality care means culturally responsive care,” the union said.
State Sen. Monica Martinez (D-Brentwood) posted on Facebook she had been in touch with Northwell after hearing about the change with interpretation services.
Northwell “assured me their language access services remain available and uninterrupted for patients and families who rely on them,” she wrote.
Lisa joined Newsday as a staff writer in 2019. She previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press covering politics, government and general assignment.