Summary:
Why are hospitals in Canada prioritizing language access at the bedside?
Canada’s hospitals serve increasingly diverse communities. Real-time interpreting helps eliminate communication barriers, reducing medical errors and improving both patient safety and satisfaction.
How are healthcare providers improving communication for patients with limited English proficiency?
Through myHealthHub’s integration with LanguageLine, nurses and clinicians can connect to professional interpreters instantly via audio or video in over 240 languages.
What impact does bedside interpreting have on patient care and efficiency?
Instant access to interpreters supports faster discharges, clearer communication, and more inclusive care, enhancing both patient outcomes and clinical workflow efficiency.
Ontario Hospitals Lead the Way in Multilingual Care with Instant Video Interpreting
In a hospital room in Ontario, a nurse checks on a patient who has just come out of surgery. The patient is awake but anxious. He speaks limited English, and the clinician needs to explain pain management instructions. Rather than waiting for an in-person interpreter or using an unreliable workaround, the nurse taps a screen beside the bed. Seconds later, a live interpreter appears on the device.
This is the reality for hospitals using myHealthHub, the digital bedside platform created by
HealthHub Solutions, Canada’s leading provider of patient engagement technology.
“Our myHealthHub platform is designed to improve efficiencies within hospitals by providing real-time access to interpretation services,” said Glenn Gale, CEO of HealthHub Solutions. “This not only improves patient safety by reducing errors but also wasted caregiver time to provide effective communication between care provider and patients.
“This ultimately leads to a more effective and timely healthcare experience for both patients and healthcare providers.”
Challenge: Meeting the Communication Needs of a Diverse Patient Population
Across Canada, hospitals are serving an increasingly diverse population. From newly arrived immigrants to French-speaking communities outside of Quebec, language barriers have become a daily reality in clinical care. When patients and providers do not share a common language, the risk of misunderstanding rises. So do the chances of misdiagnosis, delayed discharge, and patient dissatisfaction.
HealthHub Solutions recognized that limited language access was not just a communication issue. It directly impacted clinical quality, operational efficiency, and health equity.
Traditional workflows required staff to request interpreters by phone, locate a secondary device, or coordinate in person, often adding delays. With no consistent solution at the bedside, care teams were left improvising. For a company focused on digital transformation, this was an opportunity to embed a better answer.
Solution: On-Demand Interpretation Embedded into myHealthHub
To address this need, HealthHub Solutions integrated LanguageLine’s on-demand interpretation into the myHealthHub platform, giving patients and providers direct, real-time access to interpreters in more than 240 languages.
The service is accessible at the bedside through audio and video. With just a few taps, nurses and clinicians can launch a secure connection to a professionally trained interpreter within seconds. This includes video remote interpreting (VRI) in more than 40 languages, such as American Sign Language and French-Canadian.
The workflow is intuitive. Interpreters can be brought into conversations at any stage of the patient journey, from admission to discharge. No extra hardware is required. Everything happens directly through the same device used for entertainment, education, food ordering, and telehealth consultations.
Hospitals report that this integration has helped streamline communication, reduce reliance on external devices, and eliminate many of the delays that previously disrupted care.
Outcome: More Inclusive Care and Improved Clinical Efficiency
The response from hospitals using the new feature has been overwhelmingly positive. Teams report stronger care coordination, faster discharges, and better engagement with patients who have limited English proficiency.
Patients benefit from being heard and understood in their own language. Providers are
empowered to deliver safer, more timely care without the added burden of coordinating
interpreter services. In some cases, access to immediate interpretation has even helped avoid extended hospital stays, contributing to reduced costs and improved flow.
The addition of French-Canadian video interpretation has also strengthened language access in provinces outside Quebec, where the need is rising but local resources are limited.
By embedding public safety and healthcare interpretation directly into the myHealthHub
ecosystem, HealthHub and LanguageLine have set a new standard for inclusive care in
Canada’s digital health landscape.
Let’s Talk Solutions
LanguageLine is proud to partner with HealthHub Solutions to bring language access directly to the bedside. If your hospital or healthcare system is looking to make care more inclusive, efficient, and patient-centered, we are here to help. Please schedule a free consultation so we can get acquainted and learn more about your organization.