Increasing in-person medical interpreter utilization in the NICU through a bundle of interventions

Background In-person medical interpretation improves communication with patients who have preferred language other than English (PLOE). Multi-dimensional barriers to use of medical interpreters limit their use in the NICU. Local problem Medical teams in our NICU were not consistently using in-person medical interpreters, leading to ineffective communication with families with PLOE. Methods/Interventions Interventions included staff educational sessions and grand rounds regarding equitable language access, distribution of interpreter request cards to families, and allocation of dedicated in-person interpreters for NICU rounds. Interpreter utilization was calculated by total requests per Spanish-speaking person day in the NICU. Results Interpreter utilization increased five-fold during the intervention period (from 0.2 to 1.0 requests per Spanish-speaking person day). Conclusions We substantially increased our unit in-person interpreter utilization through a bundle of multifaceted interventions, many of which were low-cost. NICUs should regard dedicated medical interpreters as a critical part of the care team.