What we do
Our services include:
- Onsite spoken language interpreting for official minority language speakers and immigrant and refugee populations
- Remote interpreting by phone or video conference
- Online booking, schedule changes and reporting
We will dispatch a professional interpreter to your location or immediately connect you with a professional interpreter over the phone.
We provide spoken language interpreting services in over 150 languages. Download the list of languages we interpret and translate. If you don't see the language you need on this list, please contact us.
Note: Please determine if your client requires Mandarin, Cantonese or another Chinese dialect.
We provide interpreting services to health-care professionals who work for any agency or service under the BC health authorities and private physician offices.
Interpreting Services for the following health authorities are consolidated and funded under a centralized budget.
- Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA)
- Providence Health Care (PHC)
- Fraser Health (FH)
- Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH)
Interpreting services may be accessed by all Island Health staff and are funded under a separate centralized budget administered by Island Health.
Interpreting services are provided to Interior and Northern Health staff on a fee-for-service basis. For more information, including rates, please contact pls@phsa.ca.
Interpreting services are available to private physician offices including BC family practices and specialists. Telephone interpreting is available for office-based family physicians and nurse practitioners at no cost. For more information, please contact pls@phsa.ca.
Modes of interpretingPLS provides spoken language interpreters to enable communication between patient with limited English proficiency, clients and health-care practitioners.
We offer the following modes of interpreting:
- on-site
- over the phone
- video conference
Why use a professional interpreter
A qualified interpreter optimizes the delivery of safe and equitable health care for patients with various cultural and language needs.
BC health providers who use telephone interpreting report it to be timely, helpful and reasonable to use, even on a busy day.
There are more than 350 skilled language specialists available for in-person and phone interpreting across the province.
PLS interpreters adhere to rigorous quality-assurance measures and to national professional standards.
- Accuracy and fidelity – interpret the message accurately and completely, without additions or distortions
- Confidentiality – all information learned during interpretation is confidential
- Impartiality – striving to show no bias to either side during interpretation
- Maintaining role boundaries – professional role; no personal involvement
- Accountability – accountable to all parties and organizations for accuracy of interpretation
- Professionalism – act in professional and ethical manner at all times
- Continued Competence – lifelong learning to keep up with changes in language
Professional interpreters are trained to accurately convey all parts of a message without changing the content, meaning or tone, reducing errors.
Using an interpreter allows the patient or family member to focus solely on understanding their illness or to support a loved one.
Remember that family and friends should not be used as interpreters. The role of the family in an interpreter-assisted appointment should be one of support, similar to the role of family in an appointment in which the health care provider and patient speak directly.
