Northwestern Medicine Interpretation Services

Interpretation Services

Northwestern Medicine Interpretation Services

Servicios de interpretación

You have a right to get care in a language that you understand. If you prefer to communicate about your health care in a language other than English, you will have access to a trained, qualified medical interpreter at no cost. Your interpreter is part of your care team.

The Interpretation Services team collaborates with your care teams, family and caregivers to help you have the best health outcome and care experience.

All interpreters hired at Northwestern Medicine are certified, qualified and trained to meet state and federal requirements. They improve patient safety and satisfaction by:

  • Knowing medical terminology in the language(s) they support
  • Interpreting everything being said
  • Watching for body language or facial expressions that might indicate confusion or distress
  • Working as patient advocates to ensure staff and physicians address any questions or concerns

We are proud to support you with a combination of services, based on your location. Interpreters may be on-site, or they may provide services via video or over the phone.

  • Face-to-face interpreters
  • Video remote interpreting (VRI)
  • Telephone

At certain locations, Spanish-speaking interpreters who are on staff at Northwestern Medicine are available for inpatient, outpatient and surgical interpreting.

We also partner with professional interpreter agencies to help with face-to-face language interpretation as needed. This includes American Sign Language (ASL) for patients who are hard of hearing and Tactile ASL to serve patients who are hard of hearing and visually impaired.

Video remote interpreting (VRI) offers remote access to an interpreter via an iPad. VRI is available in the following languages:

  • ASL
  • Amharic
  • Arabic
  • Armenian
  • Bengali
  • Bosnian
  • Burmese
  • Cambodian
  • Cantonese
  • CDI/ASL
  • Croatian
  • Farsi
  • French
  • Gujarati
  • Haitian Creole
  • Hindi
  • Hmong
  • Japanese
  • Karen
  • Korean
  • Mandarin
  • Nepali
  • Pashto
  • Persian
  • Polish
  • Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Portuguese (Portugal)
  • Punjabi
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Serbian
  • Somali
  • Spanish
  • Swahili
  • Tagalog
  • Tigrinya
  • Turkish
  • Ukrainian
  • Urdu
  • Vietnamese

Interpretation over the telephone is a useful medium that you can access quickly. This accessible option helps ensure patients and families have a full understanding of the plan of care. For more detailed conversations or to schedule appointments in advance, the care teams can work with Interpretation Services to set up a face-to-face interpreter or VRI.