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Article published In:
Localization in Healthcare and Medical Settings in the Advent of COVID-19
Edited by Minako O'Hagan and Julie McDonough Dolmaya
[The Journal of Internationalization and Localization 8:2] 2021
► pp. 137–155

How COVID-19 changed telephone interpreting in Spain

ORCID logo | Universidad de Alcalá
ORCID logo | Universidad de Alcalá

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, telephone interpreters in Spain were used to communicating administrative issues, medical instructions, and even humanitarian social assistance rendered by social workers and psychologists. However, since March 2020 these interactions have been heavily replaced by conversations mediated by telephone interpreters related to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus infection. This contribution describes the provision of telephone interpreting during the COVID-19 pandemic using the information reported by the interpreters of the company Dualia Teletraducciones as a case study. It focuses on healthcare-related services and clients, offering data related to the frequency of use of telephone interpreting, the most common languages used, and the evolution of clients and services (Emergency Rooms, tracers, pandemic hotels, etc.). This article also describes the hiring, training and quality monitoring processes, including the main tools developed to facilitate remote interpreting during the pandemic.

Keywords: telephone interpreting, remote interpreting, telephone interpreter, Spain, COVID-19, pandemic
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Telephone interpreting in healthcare settings
  • 3.Telephone interpreting in Spanish healthcare settings
  • 4.Signs of a paradigm shift
  • 5.The tipping point of the State of Alarm
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 28 March 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jial.21005.gut
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