Language Assistance & Interpreter Services
Use our language services to communicate your health care needs
Supporting Patients with Language and Interpreter Services
If you're a non-English speaker or use American Sign Language (ASL), you deserve access to the same level of medical care as any other patient.
At Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth, we strive to be an equitable and inclusive healthcare center.
Free of charge to our patients, we provide:
- ASL interpreters
- Closed captioned televisions and phones with teletypewriters/telecommunications devices (TTY/TDDs) for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Medical interpreters for Portuguese and Spanish
- Telephone interpreter services for 140 other languages
All foreign language interpreters who work in our hospital receive special training as medical interpreters.
Your Right To Be Understood
Communicating clearly is essential to getting the care you need. At BID Plymouth, language services and interpreters are part of your patient rights. You can access our language services at any time.
Interpreters are readily available in our Emergency Department.
Our interpreter services office handles requests from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm, Monday through Friday. Contact the office at 508-830-2400 or 508-944-7041. Nursing supervisors manage interpreter requests outside those hours.
To make sure you get the right language and heath care services, our team:
- Identifies your primary language.
- Contacts the appropriate interpreter services coordinator or nursing supervisor.
- Requests an in-person interpreter, if possible.
- Uses telephonic language services (operator assisted) while waiting for live interpreter.
Language Assistance for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
If you need an ASL interpreter, we provide one through an outside agency or the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
We also can use video remote interpreting or paper and pencil to communicate with you. If you have some hearing capacity, we may ask you to use a hearing amplification device. If you're admitted to the hospital, we provide:
- In-room televisions with closed captioning
- Phones equipped with TTY/TDD
