On a busy morning at Gulf Coast Medical Center in Fort Myers, interpreter Maria Marin moves from cardiology to urology to oncology. “There’s no room in this hospital I haven’t been to,” she says. The clinical need changes with every encounter, but her purpose does not: “It’s the patient’s right to know and understand everything that is happening.”
That conviction sits at the center of how Lee Health, a community-focused nonprofit founded in 1916, has built language access into the daily mechanics of care. Serving a fast-growing, increasingly diverse Southwest Florida, the system treats qualified interpreting not as an add-on service but as clinical infrastructure — as essential to a safe encounter as any other part of the workflow.
The scale raises the stakes. Lee Health records more than 2 million patient contacts a year across upwards of 100 practice locations, supported by 17,000-plus employees and 2,500 medical staff. Its footprint spans acute, specialty, pediatric, rehabilitation, skilled nursing, outpatient and urgent care settings — from trauma bays and perioperative suites to oncology units and ambulatory clinics. Each carries its own communication demands, and each is a moment where a patient with limited English proficiency (LEP) could be left behind.
Why it matters. Clinical communication is complex enough on its own; a language barrier compounds every step of it. When access to a qualified interpreter is inconsistent, the effects surface across the system’s most closely watched metrics:
- Higher readmission rates among LEP patients
- Longer lengths of stay tied to delayed discharges
- Variation in safety and quality across encounters
- Slower emergency department throughput
- Discharge summaries, prescriptions and portal messages patients can’t act on
“The question is, are we providing information in a way patients can actually consume and understand?” said Dr. Selynto Anderson, Lee Health’s chief community health and impact officer. Reaching that bar, he notes, means meeting patients in “a variety of different spaces” — not just at the bedside.
Staff first, remote to scale
Lee Health’s model begins with professional, on-site interpreters as the foundation, then layers in remote coverage — because no system can station an interpreter at every touchpoint at every hour:
- Staff interpreters lead high-acuity and scheduled encounters, bringing clinical familiarity and physical presence to the room
- Video remote interpreting (VRI) brings qualified interpreters into any room or clinical situation on demand
- Over-the-phone interpretation (OPI) covers audio-appropriate use cases
The goal is reliability at the exact moment of need, without adding friction to care. “We don’t necessarily have staff interpreters in every single touchpoint of our health system. That’s just not feasible,” Anderson said. “VRI gives us the capability to communicate with those patients in real time.” The remote options, he added, are a “very important” complement — built to augment staff interpreters, never replace them.
A safe bilingual pathway
To broaden coverage further, Lee Health runs a dual-role bilingual program that prepares qualified multilingual staff to interpret in defined scenarios. Team members are activated only after assessment and training — adding flexibility without loosening the standards that govern professional interpreting.
Measuring through a language lens
What distinguishes the model is how Lee Health watches it. Oversight extends past the bedside to what Anderson calls the “last mile” — the points where care lands, or doesn’t, after a patient leaves the room:
- Discharge instructions
- Pharmacy directions
- Patient-portal messages
- Post-visit surveys
The system also reads its operational scorecard through a language lens, analyzing readmissions, length of stay and other metrics specifically for LEP populations. Tracking those outcomes turns language access from a compliance checkbox into a lever the organization can actually manage — surfacing where communication gaps appear and where the model is working.
Presence at the core
For all the technology involved, the work still comes down to people in rooms. For interpreters like Marin, the craft is equal parts preparation and presence. The department or the diagnosis may change from one call to the next, but the standard she holds does not. “Our job is to make sure when we leave that room, they understood everything they were told,” she said.
The takeaway. Lee Health’s framework is as clear as it is durable:
- Start with staff — on-site interpreters as the clinical foundation
- Extend with remote — VRI and OPI for every room and every hour
- Measure by outcomes — readmissions, length of stay and the “last mile,” read through a language lens
The payoff shows up in the ordinary rhythms of the hospital: cleaner consent conversations, steadier discharges and calmer patients who know what is happening to them.
Learn more
Read the complete Lee Health customer story to explore more patient stories, how the health system built its language access strategy, the measurable outcomes it achieved, and the lessons other healthcare organizations can apply within their own systems.