For language service providers, working from home was already relatively common before the pandemic. There were even some companies whose entire workforce worked remotely. With the coronavirus pandemic, most if not all LSPs have now moved to remote work. Some people are concerned that working from home leads to lower productivity. Many LSPs have seen a reduction in how much work they have, so comparing the company’s efficiency or productivity between “then” and “now” might not give a fully accurate picture of the effects of working from home. But since the future of COVID-19 is uncertain, we think it is likely that LSPs will continue to let their employees work from home for a while yet. And, if companies remain productive once business starts picking back up, perhaps more companies will consider going remote permanently.

Since almost everything has to be conducted remotely these days, usage of technology that allows us to communicate remotely has skyrocketed. This trend includes the use of remote interpretation technology, such as phone and video interpretation. These services allow critical information to be shared safely. While this type of interpretation is usually not a client’s first choice (many people naturally prefer in-person interpretation), people will get accustomed to using it. And once people are used to it, it is less likely that they will stop. This is why we think that even when in-person interpretation is safe again, remote interpretation will remain more popular than it was before the pandemic.

This pandemic has revealed the importance of medical interpretation and translation, and also the limitations that many health care providers have in providing these services, especially interpretation. Many hospitals were not set up to allow for crucial remote interpretation services. Once the pandemic hit, this became even less of a priority for many hospitals, which has potentially had drastic effects on the lives of non-English speakers who contract the virus (US News). Now that this issue has come to light, we hope that health care providers will take it seriously and take action to make language access possible, especially during a time like this when many lives are at stake. We think that this awareness could spark reforms that improve health care language access across the country in the long term.

Finally, we believe we might see a difference in what translators and interpreters choose to specialize in. As discussed before, many industries have been hard hit by this pandemic, and as a result companies are choosing to forego translation and interpretation services for the time being. However, some translators and interpreters are in extra high demand, like those who specialize in medical and legal work. Since many people are currently worried about job security, and will likely remain worried about it in the future, we can expect that many linguists will take steps to ensure their job security, including specializing in a domain that will always be needed even during global emergencies.

In times of uncertainty, speculating about the future can help us feel more prepared for whatever is to come. We are not sure whether our predictions will occur, of course. But what we are sure of is that most people who contribute to the language services industry are passionate and hard working, and will always do their best to make communication possible.

Medical records often come in hard copy. When we make a quote, we count the total amount of words and base the quote on this number. Hard copy makes counting the words more complicated, so we must do our best to accurately count and calculate by hand; we might even do this process two or three times to ensure that our quote will be as accurate as possible.

These projects had several different types and lengths of documents, including handwritten doctor’s notes, medical histories, diagnosis information, receipts, itemized bills, and information sheets. We bundled these by type and had them translated in different batches, to make sure the translator wasn’t overburdened and could focus on one type at a time based on their specialization. This helped us produce high quality translations and stay organized.

This also helped us notice patterns in the documents, and come up with ideas that would make translation easier and quicker. For example, several of the documents were nearly identical, with just a few words or sentences being different. Rather than having the same content translated multiple times, we translated one of the documents. Then for all the others, we identified every piece that was different, translated these “strings,” and inserted them where they belonged. This saved our client a bunch and also helped us stick closer to the budget.

The volume of medical records is usually heavy especially for severe injuries. It requires a team to complete managing and translating all sorts of documents, and the tasks involved include selecting translators who have relevant experience and qualifications, organizing all of our files, keeping track of the status of the project, clarifying unclear parts with experts, reviewing the translations for completeness and accuracy, and preparing the files for final delivery to the client.

We work to have a supportive environment where our team members can cover for each other’s backs, so no one is overloaded. When improvements are needed, we are willing to talk about them and improve them rather than brush them under the rug. After all, accuracy and completeness are the utmost goal of our work. We enjoy medical records translation projects, because it gives us a great sense of helping our clients and also because there is always something challenging us to put in the extra effort!