Over the past 30 years, CLI has established a strong track record of quality, compliance, and responsiveness with our healthcare translation services. We understand the high-stakes nature of healthcare communication. The translators we work with are well-versed in healthcare terminology and aware of the nuances required to accurately translate medical documents such as informed consent forms, discharge summaries, medication instructions, and HIPAA-related materials.
The main difference between language interpretation and language translation lies in the medium: interpretation services deal with spoken or signed language in real time, while translation deals with written text. Interpreters convert spoken or signed words from one language into another to facilitate live communication. Translators, on the other hand, convert written text from one language into another, taking more time and potentially using tools like translation memories.
While interpretation focuses on spoken or signed words, healthcare translation handles written documents and content. Skilled medical industry translators comprehend source texts and language while conveying the full meaning in translated writings through precise terminology and tone. This requires literary prowess and technical know-how, and being well-versed in medical concepts.
Professional medical translators specialize in accurately translating the full spectrum of healthcare documents, forms, and other types of content:
Essential for understanding care, making decisions, and exercising rights:
Required to meet compliance and support transparency:
Supports patient education and informed decision-making:
Accessibility should extend across all forms of patient interactions:
With millions of Americans facing language barriers, healthcare document translation is essential for improving patient outcomes, enhancing patient experience, and meeting regulatory obligations.
Federal laws like Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and Section 1557 of the ACA require healthcare organizations to provide meaningful access to care for individuals with limited English proficiency.
State and local laws often mandate translation of vital documents like consent forms and discharge instructions.
Accurate translation reduces medical errors from misunderstood prescriptions or instructions.
Patients who understand their care plans are more likely to follow treatments and achieve better outcomes.
Patients must fully understand treatment risks and benefits to give informed consent.
Translation ensures ethical standards are met and protects providers from legal liability.
Translation supports health equity by ensuring that language barriers do not limit access to care.
It promotes trust and engagement with diverse communities, especially among immigrant and refugee populations.
When patients clearly understand instructions and administrative processes, it reduces no-shows, repeat visits, and readmissions, saving time and resources.
Properly translated documentation can be shared and/or standardized across care teams to eliminate redundancy and miscommunication.
During emergencies (e.g., pandemics, natural disasters), translated materials are essential for timely and accurate communication about safety protocols, evacuations, vaccine information, and testing.
CLI provides top-rated services for translating critical documents in healthcare. The translation specialists we work with are experienced in handling translations for a range of healthcare documentation from patient records and discharge instructions to legal documents, public health notices, and more.
We exclusively work with translators who are native speakers of the target language with deep industry-specific expertise and cultural fluency. This guarantees the translators understand your organization and the nuances that are critical to precise medical translation.
When you need medical translation services for documents, experience matters. Since 1996, we’ve been providing quality translations for healthcare providers and organizations across the U.S. that need to communicate effectively with the communities they serve.
Your documents deserve more than word-for-word translation. While other companies can rely heavily on technology, we prioritize human expertise, giving each project individual attention from professionals who understand healthcare-specific requirements and terminology.
Whether you’re a hospital, health system, community health center, private practice, or long-term care facility, we understand your compliance needs. CLI’s translation team follows strict quality standards to ensure your translations meet all regulatory requirements.
Ensuring the highest quality is a team effort at CLI. Every translated document we work on is overseen by a dedicated project manager and uses effective methods to translate English documents to Spanish and other languages using two separate linguists — one for translation and one for proofing.
Our translation team follows a multistep QA process: (1) translation, (2) editing, and (3) proofreading (TEP). Documents are translated, proofed, formatted, and proofed again to ensure accurate translations.
Our goal is to make the document translation process as easy and seamless as possible for you and your team. This goes for the quality of the translation as well as the final delivery of your translated file.
You’ll receive a file that is fully formatted and ready to publish. We work with all the industry-standard document files, including the Adobe Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, etc.), the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.), PDFs, WordPerfect, and Quark.
We maintain strict security protocols for all translation projects. Translators and team members sign confidentiality agreements, follow HIPAA guidelines, and use secure file transfer systems. We can also accommodate specific security requirements for sensitive business materials.
A certified medical translation includes a signed statement from the translator or translation company attesting to the accuracy and completeness of the translation. Courts and legal support organizations, as well as other government agencies, often require certified translations for official documents. Upon request, we can include this attestation from an authorized signer, ensuring your documents meet all requirements.
Turnaround times vary based on document complexity, length, and language pair. Most standard documents can be completed within 2–4 business days. For urgent requests, we offer expedited service options. We’ll provide you with a specific timeframe with your price quote.
Our internal quality review process upholds the highest standards at every step. Each project begins with translation by a linguist with industry-specific expertise, followed by a thorough review from a second qualified translator. We then conduct a final quality check for accuracy and formatting, verify industry-specific terminology, and complete a comprehensive formatting review. This multistep approach ensures consistently high-quality translations that meet your needs.
Medical translators need exceptional multilingual writing skills, understanding of medical subject matter, research capabilities, and technological proficiency. Many hold advanced specialty degrees and have professional certifications along with translation experience focused on medical topics.
While advancing, translation software still lacks the nuance, contextual precision, language variation, cultural awareness, and subject-matter expertise achieved by seasoned human medical translators. So, for accurate, reliable medical documents, professional translation performed by humans remains standard.
Our document translation rates vary by language. All languages are priced by the word, and each project receives a customized estimate.
A full TEP (translation, editing, and proofreading) process is included in the per-word price quote, along with basic typesetting services and built-in project management and quality assurance time. Additional formatting fees are charged by the hour and will be quoted upfront, prior to translation.
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