But imagine a doctor actually speaking a foreign language.

Say that you know English, and she's speaking Russian. Or the doctor is the one speaking English, but you understand only Crow.

"I don't want someone to walk in here and not get the care they deserve" because of a language barrier, said Brenda Olson, a staffing representative at Billings Clinic.

Looking for foreign-language speakers

It is Olson's job to find foreign-language speakers to interpret for Billings Clinic patients. To that end, Olson recently put out a call among the medical center's staff for people who know Persian, German, French, Bosnian and Cheyenne, among other languages.

"We always like to be prepared for anything," she said.

Speakers of Spanish, Crow, Russian and Italian already have been identified. Multilingual employees are placed on a list and summoned when a patient speaking their specialty language arrives at the hospital.

The most common interpreter requests at Billings Clinic are for speakers of Spanish, Japanese and Korean and for sign language, Olson said.

The medical center contracts with about a half-dozen sign interpreters, including Joyce Scherer.

Scherer, who makes her living as an interpreter, said most of her jobs at Billings Clinic are scheduled in advance.

"When a (deaf) patient makes an appointment, the appointment desk knows to call staffing and request an interpreter," she said.

Occasionally, she takes middle-of-the-night emergency calls as well.

Jobs are rotated among sign interpreters, but patients can request repeat services from the same person.

"Sometimes it's some pretty private situations, and the less people you share it with the better," Scherer said.

Profession interpreters

It is important for medical centers to have professional interpreters of sign and spoken languages, she said.

The job should not be left up to family members, who sometimes become part of a dramatic situation - such as a poor prognosis - and should not be expected to at once manage their emotions and translate for their relative.

"You have to remove yourself from the specifics of the situation," Scherer said. "In a doctor-patient setting, if it's an intimate situation going on, I just try to maintain eye contact so they know my eyes aren't going anywhere else."

"Sometimes people will ask that I leave the room, and they communicate other ways" such as by writing everything down, she said.

By Diane Cochran
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/12/27/build/local/30-interpreters.inc