A few weeks ago, an article about Google Translate left the wrong impression.

And here is a great story to show why.

A distinguished hospital system in the U.S. (that has asked to remain anonymous) had an incident where a clinician used a translation app to tell a patient that he wished he knew Spanish so that he could communicate with her while they waited for the interpreter.

The translation came out, \"I wish you would have learned English so that way I could communicate with you.\"

By the time the interpreter arrived, the patient was crying. When the clinician asked why (through the interpreter) she said the doctor had offended her. As a result, that hospital system has created a special policy to ban the use of non-approved devices for communication with Limited English Proficient patients.

There is no safe substitute for qualified language assistance. Electronic translation apps should not be used to communicate with healthcare patients or clients of community services.