Telelanguage Provides Reliable, Professional Language Services Amidst the COVID-19 Climate

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and on March 13, 2020, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency. Nearly every major industry has experienced dramatic changes in operations as new safety protocols roll out across the country in response to COVID-19.

Many businesses and organizations have implemented work from home programs, and health care organizations have increased the use of Telehealth Services to provide patient care. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has broadened access to Medicare telehealth services so that beneficiaries can receive a wider range of services from their doctors without having to travel to a healthcare facility under the 1135 waiver authority and Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act.

Communication during a crisis is vital. During this time, it is especially important that limited-English proficient and Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing populations have reliable access to professional language interpreters and translated materials. 

• 25.1 million people in the United States (over the age of 5) are considered Limited English Proficient (LEP), meaning they have reported speaking English less than “very well”.

• There are more than 350 languages spoken in U.S. homes

• 1 in 5 U.S. residents speaks a language other than English at home

• Approximately 35 million Americans are hearing impaired.

During this time of crisis, Telelanguage is a reliable language service provider partnering with over 8,000 organizations who require fast connections to industry-certified interpreters, covering 350 languages. 

“Even in the midst of the COVID-19 impact, we are still seeing uptimes at 99.9999%, and our call capacity remains around 60%,” says Director of Operations, Lyndon Beckner. “Our connect times are averaging the same as they were three to four months ago,” he adds. “Our remote, decentralized approach to service delivery has positioned us to continue providing the highest levels of interpretation without any interruptions,” concludes Beckner.

Telelanguage has added additional staff to take on the increased volume of calls. Many facilities – particularly healthcare – are forced to send staff interpreters home, requiring that they move towards a telephonic and video interpretation solution. Telelanguage’s remote implementation procedures allow activation of new accounts (or new departments within existing accounts) within minutes over the phone or via an online chat. Interpretation can begin immediately upon account activation.

“From day one, Telelanguage has utilized a decentralized, remote-based interpreter platform, as opposed to relying on centralized call centers,” says Co-President, Andre Mon Belle. “In the past, this has allowed us to remain unaffected during regional internet outages and natural disasters. With the current COVID-19 climate, we have seen zero impact to our business model or service delivery, as our remote platform has been a fabric of our company since the beginning – while many of our competitors have been forced to shutter call centers.” 

Mon Belle adds that, “Our agents and interpreters must all be HIPAA and HITECH compliant. Additionally, the majority of our agents and interpreters work for us full-time. One of the advantages of having remote agents and interpreters, as opposed to centralized call centers, is our flexibility. We’re able to easily cover all standard business hours across all time zones, and our agents and interpreters set their own schedules to ensure we have constant support, 24x7x365.”  

About Telelanguage, Inc.

Telelanguage has been providing customers with the highest quality of language service since 1991. They support over 350 languages, 24x7x365 utilizing 6,000+ U.S.-based interpreters. Telelanguage currently supports over 8,000 accounts around the world – in all industries. Services include over-the-phone, on-site and video remote interpretation, as well as document translations, interpreter management and scheduling, reporting, invoicing, language assessment evaluations, and much more.