I was at my endocrinologist‘s clinic this morning – wowing him with my stellar
Speak Out: Sign language interpretation (Photo credit: Grant Neufeld)
physicality – when an interesting exchange took place. It appears, that his patient immediately after me, required an interpreter. “Sign language?” I asked, obsessive individual that I’m known to be. “Nope, Spanish,” he said. “Problem is, they won’t wait – they’re such prima donnas,” he lamented.
He went on to tell me that that the interpreters and translators, employed by the hospital will stay as long as necessary when they’re actually doing their job, but they will only spend 15 minutes in the waiting room. “Then, they just up and split. They don’t care that we may have a problem case that’s holding up everybody else. They don’t get how hard it is, being a doctor, I guess.”
“No,” says I. “That’s not it at all. It’s the hospital itself. The bean counters upstairs feel that if an interpreter is sitting on her fundament in the waiting room, she’s not earning her pay. I’ll bet you anything they’re told they won’t be paid for time not actually interpreting.”
I went to the U.S. Department of Labor site, and found this link:
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Media-and-Communication/Interpreters-and-translators.htm
Two sign language interpreters working together as a team for a student association meeting. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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