Council hearing finds improvements but ongoing gaps in hospital language access

At a New York City Council Committee on Hospitals hearing, committee chair Council Member Mercedes Narcisse and witnesses heard officials from New York City Health and Hospitals describe a system of 24/7 interpretation by phone, video and in‑person staff while community members and clinicians urged more resources for hard‑to‑find languages and better frontline review.

The hearing focused on how New York City hospitals identify language needs, secure interpreters for urgent care and translate critical written materials for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). "New York is 1 of the most diverse cities in the world, with hundreds of languages and dialects being spoken by its residents," Council Member Mercedes Narcisse said, noting "over 1,500,000 residents in New York City are considered as having limited English proficiency or LEP." The testimony and public comments emphasized clinical safety, access to services and the need for better data and community partnerships.

Iveless Mendez Cistiniano, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at New York City Health and Hospitals, said language access is central to H+H's mission. "Language access is an essential component of Health and Hospitals' mission to deliver high quality health services to all patients regardless of the language they speak," Mendez Cistiniano testified. She said the system provides on‑demand phone and video interpretation, in‑person interpreters at select facilities, translated critical documents in the system's top 13 languages and integration of interpretation into telehealth and MyChart.

Mendez Cistiniano gave several operational details: H+H maintains access to interpretation in more than 300 languages through phone, video and onsite staff; an "accessible format directory" lists written translations into the top 13 languages (Albanian, Arabic, Bangla/Bengali, Chinese simplified, Chinese traditional, French, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Urdu); and H+H reported providing "41200000.0 minutes of interpretation in 190 different languages and dialects" in 2024, with roughly 74% over the phone and 24% via video remote interpretation. She said average connection time is under one minute for most languages and can run up to about two minutes for rarer languages, and that vendors used include Propio for video remote interpretation and Birch Language Services for translations of written materials. H+H said employees who self‑identify as multilingual are logged in human resources and that bilingual staff who provide interpretation receive a medical interpreter skills assessment and a 40‑hour interpreter training requirement.

Clinicians and community organizations told the committee those systemwide services have improved care but do not yet meet needs for some populations. "When I began residency in 2020, interpretation services for Haitian Creole were grossly inadequate," said Dr. Shane Solger, a resident physician in emergency and internal medicine at Kings County Hospital and member of the Committee of Interns and Residents. He credited council advocacy for recent improvements—60 interpretation tablets purchased, 24/7 Haitian Creole video access, MyChart in Haitian Creole and three in‑person Creole interpreters added in April—but said printed discharge summaries in Haitian Creole remain unavailable and many after‑visit summaries rely on Google Translate.

Advocates from African Communities Together and the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families urged more capacity for African and Asian languages, stronger community‑provider partnerships and better disaggregated language data. Ayanakwe Omeragbon of African Communities Together described AfroLingual, an African worker‑owned language collaborative, and said the group is seeking funding to expand from 10 to 20 African languages. Sherry Chen of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families recommended formal partnerships with community‑based organizations, public disclosure of interpretation and translation data, expanded translated signage and forms, and support for legislation she identified as "local law 6 of 2023" and "Intro 11 34" to mandate disaggregated language data.

Public commenters also raised other options. One witness urged the city to explore expanded use of artificial intelligence as a supplement for interpretation; H+H described using predictive language models for translation review but said legal teams and governance review are part of any AI or automated translation deployment.

Committee members pressed H+H on operational questions: how devices are distributed across inpatient and outpatient units, how hospitals handle patients who cannot read language‑identification cards, the use of family members as ad hoc interpreters (H+H said staff are trained to discourage family members from serving as interpreters and to prioritize privacy and HIPAA concerns), and how H+H prioritizes interpreters for emergency care (H+H said interpreters are prioritized by patient acuity).

Witnesses recommended system changes the committee could pursue: establish recurring, independent reviews that include frontline clinicians, fund community language programs such as AfroLingual and Access Health NYC, require public reporting of interpretation metrics, and ensure written discharge materials are available in patients' preferred languages. H+H offered to provide the committee with more specific device distribution and contract pricing information upon request. The H+H witness also said the agency defers some questions—such as the city's administration of arrival centers at hotels—to City Hall rather than to H+H operations.

The committee did not take formal votes at the hearing. Council members and witnesses said follow‑up is expected on device counts, contract breakdowns by interpretation modality and implementation of community partnership recommendations.

The hearing record closes with the committee chair thanking staff, witnesses and community members and noting continued work ahead on language access across the city's hospitals.