Lead Clinical Interpreter/Translator - Spanish @ Cedars Marina Hospital

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center•Los Angeles, CA

13d•Onsite

About The Position

The Lead Clinical Interpreter/Translator – Spanish facilitates communication between physicians, nurses, volunteers, non-clinical staff, patients, patients’ families, and the community. The role provides oral interpretation and written translation, maintains session statistics and documentation, participates in service rounds and special projects, performs office duties, and assists volunteers within the Medical Center. The position interprets and translates accurately and professionally between English and Spanish across clinical settings. It advocates for patients’ communication rights, informed participation, dignity, privacy, and equal access to healthcare, and identifies or escalates barriers and concerns that could affect patient safety, consent, care, or understanding. The interpreter supports patients and families in navigating hospital services while maintaining appropriate professional boundaries and confidentiality. As a lead, the role serves as a resource and role model for staff and volunteer interpreters, supports training and mentorship, and coordinates interpreter assignments and schedules. It also provides education to clinicians, staff, volunteers, and learners on effective communication, interpreter practices, patient advocacy, and language-access requirements, and contributes to quality-improvement initiatives. The position requires independent judgment, flexibility, and the ability to support patients with diverse cultural backgrounds, ages, health conditions, disabilities, and communication preferences.

Requirements

At least five years of experience as a Spanish interpreter and translator in a healthcare setting.
High school diploma or GED.
Obtain Certified Medical Interpreter (CMI) certification from NBCMI within one year of the start date.
Obtain Certified Healthcare Interpreter (CHI) certification from CCHI within one year of the start date.
Complete the Medical Center Interpreter Services Language Proficiency Assessment/Training Program within 90 days of employment.
Complete the Interpreter Training Program within 90 days of employment.
Strong interpreting and translation skills, sound judgment, discretion, and a high level of professionalism.
Ability to work effectively with patients, families, clinicians, volunteers, and non-clinical staff in an active hospital environment.
Flexible, collaborative approach and commitment to accurate, patient-centered communication.

Nice To Haves

Hospital experience is preferred.
Bachelor’s degree in linguistics, foreign languages, translation and interpretation, communication, or a related field is preferred.

Responsibilities

Interpret and translate accurately and professionally between English and Spanish for patients, families, physicians, nurses, and other staff.
Advocate for patients’ communication rights, informed participation, dignity, privacy, and equal access to healthcare services.
Identify communication barriers that may affect patient safety, consent, treatment adherence, discharge planning, or understanding of care, and escalate unresolved concerns to appropriate resources.
Help patients and families ask questions, express concerns, make informed decisions, and participate in their care.
Support patients in navigating hospital services, policies, procedures, and available resources while maintaining appropriate interpreter boundaries.
Protect confidentiality and follow professional standards, hospital policies, and applicable legal and accreditation requirements.
Interpret across clinical settings with sensitivity to age, developmental stage, health status, cultural background, disability, and communication preferences.
Complete timely session documentation and service statistics after interpreting encounters.
Provide written translations as needed, including patient education materials, instructions, letters, schedules, and patient questions.
Serve as a resource to physicians, nursing teams, and other staff on interpretation, language access, and patient advocacy needs.
Provide referral or triage support for remote medical interpreting programs when indicated.
Participate in service rounds, special projects, office responsibilities, and other departmental activities.
Use independent judgment to solve problems, adapt to changing unit needs, and support a responsive, equitable, patient-centered experience.
Educate and train physicians, nurses, staff, volunteers, and learners on effective communication with Deaf and hard-of-hearing patients, interpreter best practices, patient advocacy, and language-access requirements.
Contribute to quality-improvement initiatives and projects that strengthen language access, patient experience, patient safety, and health equity.
Serve as a role model for staff and volunteer interpreters and support training, mentorship, assignment coordination, and scheduling activities.
Maintain competency in providing care to special patient populations and patients with diverse cultural backgrounds, identify age-related safety concerns, and institute additional protective measures as needed.