Besides English ... How Many Languages Are Spoken in Chicago?TUCSON, Ariz. -- Spanish, of course. Polish, naturally. Just completed compilation of statistics by CyraCom International, a language services company which serves the health care market in Chicagoland, shows that metro area This article is about the music production team. For the article about population centers, see metropolitan area. Metro Area are a Brooklyn-based dance music production team composed of Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani. hospitals used 26 languages for over-the-phone interpretation the first half of the year. The top five were, in addition to Spanish, Polish, Arabic, Cantonese and Russian. This contrasts to countrywide coun·try·wide adv. & adj. Throughout a whole country; nationwide: launched a fundraising campaign countrywide; a countrywide search. Adj. 1. statistics which include Vietnamese, Mandarin Mandarin (măn`dərĭn) [Port. mandar=to govern, or from Malay mantri=counselor of state], a high official of imperial China. For each of the nine grades there was a different colored button worn on the dress cap. and Korean in the top five, and Russian as the second most requested. Spanish is number one across the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . The grand total of 26 languages requested by area hospitals represent Chicago's growing diversity, noted company CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Michael D. Greenbaum. CyraCom represents nine hospitals in the Chicago area including South Shore Hospital and Northwest Community Hospital. Diane Rodriguez, executive director of patient care and support at Northwest, notes substantial amounts of Hindi, Korean and Japanese speakers come to her facility. "These statistics illustrate the challenges our hospitals face in delivering quality health care for patients," said Greenbaum. The dramatic rise in U.S. immigrant population is only expected to accelerate. Approximately 47 million people in this country, or 18 percent of the population over 5 years old, speak a language other than English at home, a 46 percent increase since 1990. Several studies have shown that language barriers can negatively affect health outcomes, patient satisfaction, efficient use of resources and quality of care, noted Greenbaum. For example, explaining the proper dosage dosage /dos·age/ (do´saj) the determination and regulation of the size, frequency, and number of doses. dos·age n. 1. Administration of a therapeutic agent in prescribed amounts. and mode of administering medication often can be challenging even with English-proficient patients; a language barrier presents more substantial difficulties. In June, CyraCom launched a new voice-activated language selection service which its tests show cut the average connect time to an over-the-phone interpreter A high-level programming language translator that translates and runs the program at the same time. It translates one program statement into machine language, executes it, and then proceeds to the next statement. from 45 to 20 seconds. "Our hospitals tell us seconds count in delivering quality patient care," said Greenbaum. CyraCom offers over-the-phone interpretation services in more than 150 languages 24 hours a day. The company, based in Tucson, serves almost 700 hospitals and is on track to reach 1,000 in 2005. |
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