Virtual interpretation expands to help staff serve our CIUSSS’s diverse population
Dr. Maya Cholette-Tétrault was treating a pregnant woman in her clinic at CLSC de Parc-Extension when a stranger popped into the room. Far from being an intruder, the newcomer was welcomed and quickly joined the exchange.
The “outsider” was an interpreter appearing on an iPad screen. Speaking in a smooth flow, she translated questions and answers between the doctor and her patient, who spoke Hindi. Though the interpreter was in a remote location, she felt like a reassuring presence in the room—and a vital link in the medical discussion.
The interpreter was provided by Voyce, a virtual translation service that’s giving our healthcare professionals access to real-time translation, on demand. The CIUSSS West-Central Montreal is the first network in Quebec to deploy the innovative service.
Translation is an essential part of healthcare in our CIUSSS, which serves the most diverse population in the province. Nearly 70 different languages are spoken in our coverage area—and on any given day, a professional is caring for someone whose mother tongue may be Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic, Tamil or Tagalog. Some have limited or no knowledge of French or English.
“Voyce is a game changer,” says Dr. Cholette-Tétrault, a family physician with the Family Medicine Group (GMF-U) at CLSC de Parc-Extension, which serves one of the most ethnically mixed districts in Canada.
“These interpreters are part of our exchange and insert themselves really easily into the intimate medical relationship. It ensures we can access basic information that’s vital for delivering safe care.”
Dr. Maya Cholette-Tétrault
Launched at CLSC de Parc-Extension in December, 2022, Voyce has now expanded to 34 services across our CIUSSS and is being implemented in the Jewish General Hospital’s Emergency Department, the busiest in the province.
Aurelia Di Fabrizio, Associate Director of Transformation, Value, Flow and Virtual Care, says feedback from doctors and other professionals has been overwhelmingly positive. “Voyce is like a member of the team that you can call whenever you need to. Clinicians can see how much this service impacts patients,” says Ms. Di Fabrizio, who has overseen the implementation of Voyce.
When patients receive care in their language of choice, clinicians can understand their needs better and patients can understand their care plan to help them get to optimal health. Ultimately, Voyce enhances the quality of care for users.
“At the end of the day, clinicians want to do right by their patients,” Ms. Fabrizio says. “This project accomplishes that.”
Dominique Dufour, Assistant to the Director of Frontline Integrated Services, compares reliable interpretation to a wheelchair ramp at a CLSC—it’s an essential tool for ensuring access to all.
“Without translation, you’re putting up a barrier to care. We always want to increase equity in our services, and that starts with communication.”
Dominique Dufour
The Voyce app can be used from a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer. Doctors, nurses and other professionals can access the service on their iPhones during home visits, enabling them to speak privately on sensitive topics to allophone patients rather than relying on family members to translate complex or personal information.
The digital connection to an interpreter through Voyce takes under 30 seconds. The system is seen as more flexible and reliable than services that were used previously by our CIUSSS, which required booking an in-person interpreter for a fixed set of time, or doing the exchanges over the phone. Voyce is paid for by the minute, and an analysis has shown that sessions cost 70 per cent less per appointment on average than previous services—a substantial savings for our CIUSSS, which assumes the cost of translation.
“We can take those savings and expand Voyce to more services.”
Aurelia Di Fabrizio
Ms. Di Fabrizio says she is fielding numerous calls from managers in other Quebec health and social service networks who are interested in implementing the service.
Voyce offers medical translation between English and 240 languages. In response to a request from CIUSSS West-Central Montreal, Voyce expanded its offering and enabled our network to begin providing translations this year between French and Spanish, Arabic, Punjabi and Haitian Creole. These four languages account for two thirds of the languages used by our CIUSSS’s clients and patients.
