ShareThisIn a hospital emergency room, a doctor urgently needs to communicate with his patient, who doesn't speak English.
At a police station, an English- and Spanish-speaking police officer needs to communicate with a victim of domestic violence, who speaks Vietnamese.
Near the Texas border, a public health department worker must explain details about the H1N1 virus to community members who speak scores of languages in addition to English.
For years, state workers have grappled with situations like these in trying to serve a Texas population that speaks more than 170 languages.
In a decision Tuesday, the state named Language Line Services -- the world's largest over-the-phone interpretation company -- as the official go-to language solutions vendor for Texas government agencies through November 2014.
The Monterey, Calif., company will assist state workers when they need translation assistance in social service departments, among public safety workers, in the courts, with 911 emergency services and with a range of local services such as Medicare and Medicaid and with document translation.
A state worker need only place a call to get instant assistance.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 33.7 percent of Texas residents speak a language other than English.
In Dallas, requests for Nepali increased 3,655 percent between 2006 and 2009. In Austin, requests for Swahili skyrocketed more than 8,000 percent during the same period.
In the past decade, Texas state and local agencies requested support in 122 languages, with Vietnamese, Mandarin and Arabic topping the list.
Spanish is second to English as the most commonly spoken language in Texas, but the linguistic diversity in the state is growing, according to Louis Provenzano, Language Line president.
"We see more than 100 languages in Texas," he said. "We always think it's all about Spanish, but the state has seen many immigrants after (Hurricane) Katrina. It's a pretty comprehensive list."
Provenzano said his company helps visiting nurses who need to communicate with patients, and social services workers who must communicate about employee benefits or help community members fill out employment documents.
By providing translation services over the phone, they can guarantee anonymity to a victim who must explain details of domestic violence.
"Let's say the police are asking for a driver's license or passport. If they can't figure the language out, they come to us, and we triage that call," Provenzano said.
Often, accurate communication delivered instantly is a matter of life or death, Provenzano said.
Provenzano tells the story of an all-too-common miscommunication in New York, where Spanish-speaking patients are given medications with English instructions to take their pills once per day. However, "once" is the Spanish spelling of 11, and many Spanish-speakers, unfamiliar with their medications interpret "once" to mean they must take the medications 11 times per day.
"It unfortunately and tragically has happened over and over again," Provenzano said of the deaths that have resulted from such miscommunication.
Now, with the decision to officially choose Language Line Services to meet interpretation needs in Texas, the state has consolidated its language-translation programs and expanded its availability to more agencies.
(Ann Work is a reporter for the Wichita Falls Times Record News
