Bridgeport Hospital video interpreter removes language barriers to ED care

Monday August 11, 2008
By Janet M. Cromer, RN, MA, LMHC

In the middle of a busy evening shift in the Bridgeport Hospital (Conn.) emergency department, a Korean woman gestured frantically that she had abdominal pain. The patient did not speak English, so the staff asked her husband where it hurt, when it started, and what her medical history was.

As he struggled to answer in his few words of English, the patient's face twisted with frustration, anxiety, and pain. Then Dawn Loehn, LPN, activated the MARTTI, a two-way live videoconferencing language service. A qualified medical interpreter appeared on the screen and began translating the staff's questions into Korean and the patient's answers into English.

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