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January 2011
Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters CCHI.
CCHI is the only certification body created by interpreters, for interpreters and the public good. CCHI has created a valid and credible credentialing program to ensure the competence of healthcare interpreters nationwide. With supporters including the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care, Office of Minority Health, the American Hospital Association, and many others, CCHI brings together the necessary stakeholders through a non-profit organization whose main mission is to develop and administer a national, valid, credible, vendor-neutral certification program for healthcare interpreters.
In January 2011, CCHI congratulated the first group of healthcare interpreters to earn the nation’s highest credential available and professional recognition of their qualification. CCHI’s first language specific performance exam, the Spanish Certified Healthcare Interpreter™ (CHI™) was awarded to 130 healthcare interpreters. The Associate Healthcare Interpreter™ (AHI™) was awarded to 105 healthcare interpreters representing healthcare interpreting services in 26 languages.
CCHI currently offers two credentials:
- Certified Healthcare Interpreter™ (CHI™) – A CHI™ certificant has been tested on the most critical knowledge, skills and abilities required of a healthcare interpreter. A CHI™ certificant must first complete the AHI™ examination plus an oral performance examination testing interpreting skills and abilities in consecutive and simultaneous interpreting, sight translation and translation. The CHI™ certification is currently only available for Spanish interpreters.
- Associate Healthcare Interpreter™ (AHI™) – An AHI™ recipient has been tested on only a part of the knowledge, skills and abilities that are required of a healthcare interpreter. Since the AHI™ examination covers only part of the knowledge, skills and abilities required of healthcare interpreters and does not test an individual’s actual interpreting skills and abilities, a certification is not awarded to those who pass this test. Rather, an individual passing this examination is awarded the AHI™ credential (a certificate indicating that the individual has passed the first step in becoming CHI™ certified and has shown that he/she has the knowledge required of a certified health care interpreter). The AHI™ credential is available for all interpreters except those who interpret in Spanish.
CCHI serves the needs of bilingual, spoken-language healthcare interpreters committed to demonstrating their professional knowledge, skills and abilities by becoming credentialed based on national standards for competency assessment. At the same time, CCHI serves many stakeholders (healthcare providers and insurers, language agencies, government agencies, patients) who need a qualified, credentialed and competency-based population of healthcare interpreters who can provide effective communication between limited English proficient patients and healthcare providers to ensure access to high-quality healthcare.
CCHI’s website provides practical advice and resources about the benefits of certification. CCHI also offers monthly updates and a webinar series. For more information, visit www.healthcareinterpretercertification.org.
For information on applying for CCHI’s credentials, click here.
September 2009
Launch of Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters
The NCIHC joins many key stakeholders around the country in applauding the launch of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI). CCHI is the first certification commission created by interpreters for interpreters and the public good. CCHI will create a national, valid, credible vendor-neutral certification program for healthcare interpreters. Its goal is to ensure the competency of interpreters through an accredited, professional certification program so that communication barriers do not affect access to, and quality of, care. Please make sure to check the CCHI website at www.healthcareinterpretercertification.org.
April 2009
September 2008
The National Coalition on Health Care Interpreter Certification (NCC) held its second in-person meeting September 20 and 21, 2008 in Minneapolis, MN. Attending the meeting were representatives from the 18 NCC organizations and 2 representatives from The California Endowment in support of the NCC efforts. The focus of this meeting was to create governance structures which will allow the NCC to operate more efficiently and effectively.
Three important outcomes of this meeting were: 1. the transformation of the Coordinating Committee into a Steering Committee; 2. the changing of the purpose statement of the National Coalition; 3. and the branding of the NCC.
In recognition of the pressing need for a national medical certification process to improve the quality of healthcare; the existence of multiple medical interpreter testing, training and certification processes; and the shared interest of NCC members and other stakeholders in seeing valid and objective standards for a certification process established, the NCC proposed to change its purpose from developing a national certification process to developing standards for a national certification process. To this end the purpose statement of the NCC has been changed to:
The National Coalition on Healthcare Interpreter Certification is committed to developing standards for a valid, credible, inclusive and transparent national process to ensure competency of healthcare interpreters and improve access and quality of care for patients with limited English proficiency in our culturally diverse communities.
To read the full report and see the NCC logo, click here.
June 2008
The National Coalition on Health Care Interpreter Certification released the report of its Inaugural Meeting held on May 29-30, 2008 in Chicago. A press release announcing the convening of the meeting and the resultant commitment to develop a single national certification in medical interpreting was distributed on June 13, 2008.
To read the full report, click here.
To read the press release, click here.
May 2008
The National Coalition on Health Care Interpreter Certification announced the selection of a broad range of stakeholder organizations who will work together to develop a national certification program. The newly selected organizations include:
- Association of Language Companies, Arlington, VA
- California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, Oakland, CA
- Center for Immigrant Health, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY
- CyraCom International, Tucson, AZ
- Institute for Diversity in Health Management of the American Hospital Association, Chicago, IL
- International Institute of Akron, Akron, OH
- Interpreting Stakeholders Group (ISG), a committee of the Upper Midwest Translators and Interpreters Association (UMTIA), Minneapolis, MN
- Jewish Vocational Services, Kansas City, MO
- Language Line Services, Monterey, CA
- Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Boston, MA
- National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers and the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID), St. Paul, MN
- National Health Law Program, Washington DC
- Portland Community College/Institute for Health Professionals, Portland, OR
- Spectrum Health, Translation and Interpreting Services, Grand Rapids, MI
To read the full press release, click here.
To read the reactions, click here.
These organizations will join the founding coalition members (see below), who have been working together since December 2007.
April 2008
The National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC), The California Healthcare Interpreting Association (CHIA), the International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA), and the American Translators Association (ATA) have been working together since December 2008 to create a nationwide coalition that will work toward development of a national certification for health care interpreters.
Applications from organizations interested in becoming members of the National Coalition on Health Care Interpreter Certification were accepted through April 11 and invitees will be notified the week of May 5, 2008.
Organizations selected for Coalition membership will be asked to send a representative to the Coalition’s first meeting, to be held Thursday, May 29 and Friday, May 30, 2008.
Please check back in June for the latest update and next steps on our road to professionalizing the field of health care interpreting.
March 2008
The California Healthcare Interpreting Association (CHIA), the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC), the International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA), and the American Translators Association (ATA) are pleased to announce the creation of a nationwide coalition that will work toward development of a national certification for healthcare interpreters. The National Coalition on Health Care Interpreter Certification is seeking 12-15 organizations to join the coalition as members.
February 2008
Since December 2007, representatives from the NCIHC, CHIA, IMIA and ATA have been holding bimonthly meetings to discuss the best organizational structure to support the work that needs to be done to create a national certification process. These four organizations constitute the National Coalition on Health Care Interpreter Certification Coordinating Committee (Coordinating Committee).
The Coordinating Committee will provide logistical and organizational coordination for the Coalition and the leadership necessary to move the agenda forward.
Accomplishments:
- The Coordinating Committee has worked on defining the basic structure of the Coalition.
- The Coordinating Committee is currently working on creating a process to invite stakeholders to join the National Coalition on Certification for Healthcare Interpreters, with plans to hold the first official meeting of the Coalition in Spring 2008. Through a grant to the NCIHC, The California Endowment will be partially funding this meeting.
December 2007
- The National Council on Interpreting in Health Care convened a meeting to discuss forming a coalition to move the healthcare certification process forward.
- Representatives from the National Council on Interpreting in Healthcare (NCIHC), the California Healthcare Interpreting Association (CHIA), the International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA, formerly the MMIA), and the American Translators Association (ATA), have met on two separate occasions to discuss the prospect of forming a national coalition to pursue certification for healthcare interpreters.
- The NCIHC has received funding to convene a face-to-face stakeholder meeting around certification, scheduled to take place in early 2008.
- On the first call it was decided to officially name this group the National Coalition on Health Care Interpreter Certification with the NCIHC, CHIA, IMIA and ATA the coordinating committee of the coalition.
- Initial discussions for the first two calls included defining the goal and structure of the National Coalition. Each organization was tasked with identifying a list of stakeholders to be invited to join the National Coalition, proposing fair mechanisms on how to select stakeholders to the National Coalition, including identifying mechanisms on how to involve all stakeholders in the process.
- The next National Coalition meeting is scheduled for January 8 at which time the role of the National Coalition will be discussed. Future agenda items include discussions around finalizing criteria for the selection of members to the National Coalition and identifying the role of the expert committees.
October 2007
- The NCIHC released a comprehensive report, authored by Maria-Paz Beltran Avery, Ph.D., of the results of national forums on certification.
November 2003
Final Report on the Pilot of a Certification Process for Spanish-English Interpreters in Heatlh Care
- This certification pilot used Medical Interpreting Assessment for Certification prototype (MIAC) developed by the Massachusetts Medical Interpreters Association (MMIA). The pilot was made possible by the work and selfless commitment of a group of dedicated volunteers within the Massachusetts Medical Interpreters Association (MMIA), the California Health Care Interpreting Association (CHIA) in partnership with Healthy House of Merced, and the Standards, Training, and Certification Committee of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC.)
Check back soon for more updates from the NCIHC on national certification for health care interpreters.
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