Hospital interpreter honored by Elgin Hispanic Network
Patty Arroyo has been speaking Spanish at various levels of fluency and precision for her whole life. During high school and college she learned the finer details of grammar and more complex tenses and conjugations, adding rules for where to put accents to her knowledge base.
Arroyo, who lives in Streamwood, got a degree in health care administration from Northern Illinois University and a job with Provena St. Joseph Hospital before she even graduated. Because she was bilingual, Arroyo would often get pulled in to help interpret for patients — much to her chagrin in the days when words like “gallbladder” were not in her Spanish vocabulary.
Now, 16 years later, Arroyo oversees the interpretation services and community health departments at Provena in Elgin. She interprets for patients on a daily basis in a job she loves with a passion few find in their life’s work.
There are six interpreters at Provena’s Elgin location offering Spanish, Polish and sign language for patients. A phone service allows doctors and nurses to call an interpreter any time of day to help patients communicate in one of more than 200 languages they might prefer.
“We call it a ministry,” Arroyo said. “It’s a calling. That’s how we feel. We love our job.”
Arroyo was recently honored by the Elgin Hispanic Network for her efforts minimizing cultural and language barriers to care for patients at Provena. Arroyo laughs, saying the hospital is like home. She loves her job and the fact there is always something new to learn. She loves the challenges and the opportunities to grow.
Most rewarding, Arroyo said, is knowing she does something good for people every day.
“I can’t imagine what it would be like to not be able to express myself to my doctors about my health,” Arroyo said. “It’s the very most important thing.”
Arroyo takes joy from helping overwhelmed patients express themselves and understand their diagnosis or treatment plan. And she appreciates being in the unique position to be involved with patients from the beginning to the end of their stays. Whether they start in the emergency room, come for inpatient or outpatient procedures or heal in the comprehensive rehabilitation unit, Arroyo and her staff of interpreters get to be involved every step of the way.
“We feel very proud to do what we do,” Arroyo said. “We’re the voice of the hospital caregiver as well as the patient and their family.”
The role of interpreters at the hospital is multifaceted. They are patient advocates, clarifiers and conduits of information and cultural brokers. They are tasked with interpreting conversations without omitting or editing information.
Arroyo said interpreters are a neutral party, the voice that facilitates communication.
The goal is to help patients make medical decisions in the language that is most comfortable to them. While most immigrants speak enough English to go through registration, many need to hear instructions and questions from nurses and doctors in their native tongue to make it through a visit.
Arroyo said helping that happen is a humanitarian act and “the right thing to do.”
Outside of work and community involvement — with the Elgin Hispanic Network and the Renz Center among others — Arroyo loves to travel. She has been to Germany, Canada, Russia and Mexico. She would still like to see Machu Picchu, climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and go on an African safari.
Looking ahead in her work, Arroyo doesn’t see herself leaving Provena. She hopes to help the interpretation department grow, adding Greek, Laotian or Arabic to the list of in-house languages one day.
The goal is to keep improving the level of service, providing a voice for more people as they make such vital decisions for their lives.