By the end of the month, patients and families at three California hospitals will have few language barriers to health when the San Mateo Medical Center becomes one of the first in the state to take a high-tech approach to interpretation.

The Medical Center will link up with two other Northern California hospitals to video conference between patients, doctors and off-site translators. Hospitals are required to provide translation services under the Limited English Proficiency standards of the US Department of Justice and the EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment And Active Labor Act) of the US Department of Health and Human Services regulations.

At the county-owned hospital, 35 percent of patients require interpreters, according to the hospital. If staff or family members are not available to translate, a patient currently has to wait or risk having medical terminology misinterpreted. Federal rules strongly discourage the use of family members and those without medical backgrounds to assure privacy and accuracy in describing medical conditions and care.

More than 20 staff members were also trained to be interpreters of Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog, Russian, Hindi, Tongan, Punjabi and Vietnamese, according to the county. If the hospital is alerted an English-limited patient is arriving, the facility will do its best to find an interpreter to work in person with the physician, patient, and family.

If that option is not available or a patient enters through the emergency department, the staff calls the Language Line and within three minutes has an interpreter ready at one of the other two hospitals. The patient and the doctor simultaneously link up with the translator via the dual handsets.

San Mateo Medical Center is scheduled to install the video monitors and dual handset phones by Feb. 28. San Joaquin County General Hospital and Contra Costa Regional Medical Center are already up and running, according to hospital officials.