Interpreter Services is excited to announce its new Patient Access Line (PAL).
Patients who are Limited English Proficient (LEP) have difficulty calling the health system due to a language barrier. We have created PAL to address language disparities between Michigan Medicine staff and our patient population. PAL is a phone number that LEP patients can use to contact Michigan Medicine to discuss anything related to their care within our institution.
A Michigan Medicine interpreter will answer the call in the patient’s language, connect the call to the appropriate area, and interpret for the patient as they speak with Michigan Medicine staff.
This service is available 24/7. When our own staff interpreters are not available, the call will be routed to a vendor, which we’ve been using through a service called DIAL. We will continue to use DIAL for languages that Michigan Medicine does not staff.
PAL phone numbers:
Arabic 734-615-1714
Chinese Mandarin 734-615-4882
Chinese Cantonese 734-615-1363
French 734-998-6774
Japanese 734-998-6757
Korean 734-615-5333
Russian 734-615-3230
Spanish 734-539-5090
When Interpreter staff is not available, the call will be routed to the external vendor through DIAL.
Earlier this year, Interpreter Services introduced a call service, MTerp, for faculty and staff to access Michigan Medicine interpreters directly.
Visit Interpreter Services to learn more about all the services offered by this team.