Hospitals and doctors’ offices need to have interpreter when seeing a patient, someone that knows the common languages spoken in that particular city and printed information for less common languages. In the long run, it will void malpractice and lawsuits. When a patient goes to a hospital, a legal document needs to be sign and some will complete such form without really understanding the procedure or what the document says, therefore, the lack of knowledge based on language barriers needs to be eliminated. If we look at lawsuits, an attorney can well say that the client signature means that he agree to all the terms. Such statement can be argued but in the end, the patients name is on the legal document, a document that stays that they agree and understand the terms.
Further, minorities often depend on family members and friends to interpret when they go to the hospitals, doctors and when reading health related information. It is important to understand what each health term means and benefits available, this is why having a family member translating or a friend might not be beneficial. A family member or a friend might not translate accurately needed information and they can omit information as they do not understand the terms and might think that the information omitted is not important. Is also common for family members and friends not to ask what a particular word means as they don’t want to show their lack of knowledge of the language. Children can also be affected by the lack of knowledge of these interpreters. Parents are trusting the information given and often feel like they do not have a solution other that doing what they believe the doctor said in order to help their kids. When looking at immigrant, many will not question such procedures as they are in fear of being deported if they cause problems or questions the