An update presented at the 7th Annual NCIHC Membership Meeting

1. 09/30/13
NATIONALCOUNCILONINTERPRETINGINHEALTHCARENATIONALCOUNCILONINTERPRETINGINHEALTHCARE
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Alina Ferrer, NCIHC
Carolyn Wang Kong, Kaiser
Permanente
Interpreter Services Metrics
Workgroup Update
2013 NCIHC Annual Membership Meeting

2. 09/30/13
NATIONALCOUNCILONINTERPRETINGINHEALTHCARE
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NCIHC Metrics Workgroup
Background
• Convened at the beginning of
2012
• Goal was to work toward
establishing best practices in the
area of tracking interpreter
encounters (contacts, work units,
jobs, etc.).

3. 09/30/13
NATIONALCOUNCILONINTERPRETINGINHEALTHCARE
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2012 Metrics Survey
• Purpose: To understand
common practices of Interpreter
Services (IS) managers and
provide direction to the effort to
standardize interpreter tracking
• Issued: End of 2012
• Format: Online (surveymonkey)
• Respondents: 24 (include
response rate?)

4. 09/30/13
NATIONALCOUNCILONINTERPRETINGINHEALTHCARE
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Sample Questions
1. What is the definition of an interpreter services
“encounter” at your organization?
3. What elements are included in the encounter?
4. How is the time tracked?
5-7. For the following three scenarios, please
indicate how many encounters you would track
using your definition of an encounter.
9. What methods are you using to log your
encounters?
12. What limitations have you noticed (if any) in the
way you track your encounters?
Various demographic questions.

5. 09/30/13
NATIONALCOUNCILONINTERPRETINGINHEALTHCARE
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Preliminary Conclusions
• It is important to track both time
interpreted AND number of providers
served.
• It is important to include an “unsuccessful
encounter” in the tracking when an
interpreter is not able to interpret due to
circumstances out of her or his control.
• It is important to define what is productive
time: Interpreting? Walking or driving to
an encounter? Time waiting with patient?
• It is important to monitor states’ federal
reimbursement processes to make data
tracking as compatible as possible.

6. 09/30/13
NATIONALCOUNCILONINTERPRETINGINHEALTHCARE
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In Conclusion
• There are several items of data
that should be tracked.
• If an organization does this, the
definition of an encounter is not
as important because the data is
being tracked and they can use
that universal data to define the
encounter as they see fit.

7. 09/30/13
NATIONALCOUNCILONINTERPRETINGINHEALTHCARE
WWW.NCIHC.ORG
In Conclusion
• There are several items of data
that should be tracked.
• If an organization does this, the
definition of an encounter is not
as important because the data is
being tracked and they can use
that universal data to define the
encounter as they see fit.