St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton, MA, part of Steward Health Care System, reports dramatic improvement in response time to requests for Interpreter Services using their new dispatching system [ServiceHub] instead of pagers. An article titled Utilizing iPod Touches to Streamline Interpreter Service Requests in Promising Practices from the Field, published by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, contains the details. An earlier article published by the same Foundation, titled Innovative Technology Improves Interpreting Service Efficiency, stated that “Staff improved efficiency by an average of 30 percent across the board!”
I’ve had the opportunity to serve as project manager and trainer for Lawrence General Hospital for the Service Hub project startup. As PM I thought it would take at least 90 days from startup to completion. However, despite limited time and many interruptions in our IT and Interpreter dept. we were able to completely setup our Ipads, train staff, and go online in about 60 days. In fact, we could have gone online sooner if we wanted. 30 days would have been plenty of time to conduct training, and in addition, set up equipment. The benefits are not solely creating efficiencies in the interpreter request process. The ability to capture data, and create reports in Excel are almost endless. Service Hub can be used by doctors, transportation, Phlebomist(lab). and more. Its a matter of time before we actually utilize the full capacity of Service Hub.