Why a bilingual virtual medical assistant matters when your patients speak Spanish

Where Spanish helps most

Spanish matters most where a person talks to your patients, or listens to them.

• Messages, calls and intake. A virtual medical assistant who handles patient requests, portal messages and new-patient intake can do it in the patient’s own language, and keep your team’s English for your team.
• Follow-up calls. A care coordinator who follows up with patients between visits can make those calls in Spanish, and escalate a change in a patient’s status to your clinicians in English.
• Scribing. A scribe who understands the visit can chart it as it happens, in your EHR, even when the patient is speaking Spanish.

What it does not replace

A bilingual assistant is not an interpreter. Interpreting during visits and phone calls is its own role, and we place interpreters too. If you need someone to interpret a visit, ask for that role by name. If you need someone who handles the patient-facing work in both languages, a bilingual assistant, coordinator or scribe is the fit.

English still matters

The same person works with your EHR, your providers and your team, and that is in English. Candidates state their English level when they apply, and we hear it for ourselves in the voice introduction and the interview, so you meet people who work comfortably in both languages. A candidate who is strong in Spanish and hesitant in English will not do the job well.

What to ask in the interview

Run the interview in English, then ask for part of the exchange in Spanish. Give them a real task: a patient writing in Spanish to change an appointment, or asking where to go for a referral. Listen for the same things in both languages: clear, calm, and the initiative to speak up. Hearing it yourself tells you how they will sound to a patient.

What to tell us when you ask

Say in your request if many of your patients speak Spanish, and which tasks you want handled in Spanish. The medical assistant role page lists the four focus areas, and the interview post has the questions to ask.