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Setting the Standard for Quality in Healthcare Interpreting
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Get Certified. Get Connected. Get Informed.
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Communication. Quality. Meaningful Health Care.
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CCHI provides a repository of online resources aimed to improve healthcare interpreter knowledge and skills, including bilingual glossaries.
The Core Certification Healthcare Interpreter™ (CoreCHI™) is a national certification thatmeasures the core professional knowledge of the medical interpreter of any language, including such vital healthcare concepts as safety protocols, universal precautions, and HIPAA. The CoreCHI™ examination is a computer-based, 100-question, multiple-choice examination in English that covers the basics of healthcare interpreting. It tests the interpreter’s critical thinking, ethical decision-making, and cultural responsiveness skills needed to perform their duties in any healthcare setting. It is the minimum qualification for any interpreter in health care. Without the CoreCHI™ certification, a person is simply a bilingual whose knowledge and skills have not been verified.
The Certified Healthcare Interpreter™ (CHI™) certification is a national language-specific certification of the interpreter’s performance skills. The CHI™ examination is an oral performance exam that includes a number of vignettes testing the interpreter’s skills and abilities in consecutive and simultaneous interpreting, sight translation and translation. Testing the simultaneous interpreting skills is especially important because it is used in emergency care, mental health settings, and emotionally charged situations. Currently, the CHI™ examination is available in Arabic, Mandarin and Spanish.
CCHI’s National Healthcare Interpreter Registry (https://cchi.learningbuilder.com) allows any healthcare administrator, employer or contractor of interpreters to: verify the person’s certification status through a name search, and search for certified interpreters by city, state, or language.
CCHI administers the Continuing Education Accreditation Program (CEAP) that assesses, analyzes and accredits continuing education (CE) programs for healthcare interpreters. The objective of CEAP is to improve the availability and quality of continuing education courses or programs for healthcare interpreters.
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters administers a national, valid, credible, vendor-neutral certification program for all healthcare interpreters – and the public good.
CCHI is a 501(c)(6) organization whose mission is to develop and administer a comprehensive certification program for healthcare interpreters, bring together representatives from national and regional non-profit interpreting associations, language companies, community-based organizations, educational institutions, hospitals, health systems, healthcare providers, and advocates for individuals with LEP. CCHI is governed by volunteer Commissioners who represent various stakeholders of the healthcare interpreting industry.
This website offers online training modules for interpreters who seek certification, for our certificants, and volunteers.
To enroll in any online module (e.g. CoreCHI™ Practice Examination or a CE Webinar), click on its title. If you don't have an account yet, you would be prompted to create one. After you create an account, you will be ready to login and enroll. Please make sure to save the username and password you create for this account, because it is different than the account you may have for CCHI Profile where your applications are stored. To reset your password, contact us at info@cchicertification.org.
To access the CoreCHI™ Practice Examination, for example, click on its title or image. For a limited time, from March 12, 2018 until June 12, 2018, this practice exam is free. To start the exam, enter the enrollment key: addCCHI2018 on the page that appears after you click on the title. Your enrollment is good for 6 months after the date of enrollment. The fee after 6/12/18 is $30.
The CHI™ Practice Examinations are free, just enter the enrollment key: Study4u
The CHI™-Spanish Practice Examination is meant to acquaint candidates who plan to take the CHI™-Spanish oral performance exam with the exam's structure and difficulty level. This is a self-assessment tool, and no review or scoring will be provided by CCHI.
The intent of this practice exam is to give you experience with a computer-based test delivery system, and to provide information regarding the type of content that you can expect to have on the CHI™ certification examination. The user interface of the actual exam is different than this practice exam, however, we provide screenshots of the actual exam in the Logistics section of this module.
You may access this practice exam at any time after you create an account on this site (please create only 1 account, if you have troubles login in, contact us at info@cchicertification.org). After you login, click on the title of this practice exam to enroll, and enter the code is Study4u.
Who should take this exam:
Any healthcare interpreter with Spanish as their working language is allowed to take this exam. The CHI™-Spanish Practice Examination is appropriate for those who would like to practice the types of questions that will appear on the CHI™-Spanish certification examination. It is not required to take this practice exam before taking the actual exam.The CHI™-Mandarin Practice Examination is meant to acquaint candidates who plan to take the CHI™-Mandarin oral performance exam with the exam's structure and difficulty level. This is a self-assessment tool, and no review or scoring will be provided by CCHI.
The intent of this practice exam is to give you experience with a computer-based test delivery system, and to provide information regarding the type of content that you can expect to have on the CHI™ certification examination. The user interface of the actual exam is different than this practice exam, however, we provide screenshots of the actual exam in the Logistics section of this module.
You may access this practice exam at any time after you create an account on this site (please create only 1 account, if you have troubles login in, contact us at info@cchicertification.org). After you login, click on the title of this practice exam to enroll, and enter the code is Study4u.
Who should take this exam:
Any healthcare interpreter with Mandarin as their working language is allowed to take this exam. The CHI™-Mandarin Practice Examination is appropriate for those who would like to practice the types of questions that will appear on the CHI™-Mandarin certification examination. It is not required to take this practice exam before taking the actual exam.For a limited time, CCHI offers this Practice Exam free of charge. To access the exam, click on the title and on the next screen enter the enrollment code: addCCHI2018 (case-sensitive). This offer expires on June 12, 2018, however, you can access the exam for 6 months after the date of enrollment. After 6/12/18, the fee is $30.
The CoreCHI™ Practice Examination consists of 30 multiple-choice questions. The questions are divided into the same domains that appear on the actual CoreCHI™ certification examination.
The examination will be scored and feedback is provided. Correct answers and explanations of both correct and incorrect answers will also be provided. However, no diagnostic information on performance to indicate readiness is offered.
The intent of this practice examination is to give you experience with a computer-based test delivery system, and to provide information regarding the format of the questions and the type of content that you can expect to see on the CoreCHI™ certification examination.
You may access the practice exam for a period of 6 months following your purchase date. You will be able to take the exam up to 10 times during this eligibility period. For each attempt, you will have up to three (3) hours to complete the test. You may log off and return at your convenience within the 6-month eligibility period. Each new attempt will show your previously selected answers, and you will have an opportunity to change them if you wish.
Your score on the practice exam is NOT predictive of your score on the certification exam.
Who should take this exam:
Any healthcare interpreter is allowed to take this exam. The CoreCHI™ Practice Examination is appropriate for those who would like to practice the types of questions that will appear on the CoreCHI™ certification examination. It is not required to take this practice exam before taking the actual exam.
The CHI™-Arabic Practice Examination is meant to acquaint candidates who plan to take the CHI™-Arabic oral performance exam with the exam's structure and difficulty level. This is a self-assessment tool, and no review or scoring will be provided by CCHI.
After you login, click on the title of this practice exam to enroll, and enter this enrollment key: Study4u
The intent of this practice exam is to give you experience with a computer-based test delivery system, and to provide information regarding the type of content that you can expect to have on the CHI™ certification examination. The user interface of the actual exam is different than this practice exam, however, we provide screenshots of the actual exam in the Logistics section of this module.
You may access this practice exam at any time after you create an account on this site (please create only 1 account, if you have troubles login in, contact us at info@cchicertification.org).
Who should take this exam:
Any healthcare interpreter with Arabic as their working language is allowed to take this exam. The CHI™-Arabic Practice Examination is appropriate for those who would like to practice the types of questions that will appear on the CHI™-Arabic certification examination. It is not required to take this practice exam before taking the actual exam.This online course for interpreters of any language was originally presented as a webinar by Maria Carla Faccini, CHI™-Spanish, and Dr. Adrienne D. Mishkin, on December 7, 2016. The course is accredited by CEAP/CCHI for 1.5 CE hours.
The presenters discuss the provider’s thought process and some of the techniques used to interview patients and strategies that the interpreter can use to overcome challenges typical for this appointment type.
To enroll in this course, click on the course
name and create an account (if you already have one on this site, just
login). Then click on the course name again and, below the course description, pay the enrollment fee of $10 either by a credit card (you don't need to have or create a PayPal account then) or your PayPal account.
To receive the Badge of Completion (i.e. certificate) you must complete listening to the recording and answer 4 of the 6 Final Quiz questions correctly. The Badge will be emailed to you as soon as these requirements are met (the text of that email itself serves as proof of completion).
The webinar content is courtesy of Maria Carla Faccini and Dr. Adrienne D. Mishkin, its authors and presenters.
Instructors’ bios:
Maria Carla Faccini has been certified as a CHI™-Spanish interpreter by the CCHI. She has an MA in conference interpreting (Spanish-English-French) from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a bachelor’s degree in education from the Universidad del Zulia in Maracaibo, Venezuela. She works as a medical interpreter/translator at Stanford Health Care and is also a freelance interpreter. She has 12 years of experience interpreting in medical settings in New York and California. She has been training medical interpreters since 2003.
Dr. Adrienne D. Mishkin is a board-certified psychiatrist with a specialization in psychosomatic medicine. She has a master’s degree in public health from the Tulane University School of Medicine, where she completed her medical training. After receiving her degree from Tulane, she completed psychiatric training at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, followed by a psychosomatic fellowship at Montefiore Hospital. She is currently the psychiatric liaison to the blood and marrow transplantation program at Columbia University Medical Center/New York Presbyterian Hospital. She is also enrolled in a bioethics master’s degree program at Yeshiva University.
This online course for Mandarin interpreters was originally
presented as a webinar by Carmen Lee, B.A., on October 28, 2016. The course is
accredited by CEAP/CCHI for 1.75 CE hours in performance-based topics.
The presenter discusses when it is appropriate to sight translate intake forms, what challenges MRI intake forms present and how to prepare for this task.
To receive the Badge of Completion (i.e. certificate) you must complete listening to the recording and answer 4 of the 7 Final Quiz questions correctly. The Badge will be emailed to you as soon as these requirements are met (the text of that email itself serves as proof of completion).
The webinar content is courtesy of Carmen Lee, its author and presenter.
Instructor’s bio: Carmen Lee is trilingual, fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin & English. She holds a B.A. degree majoring in TESOL and minor in Translation and Interpretation. Born and raised in Southern China, she also studied Business at UTS, Australia. After serving as a bilingual school teacher in San Francisco, she completed her training from CCSF’s Health Care Interpreting program. She later joined Stanford Health Care and worked as a staff interpreter since 2009. Upon graduating from CCSF, she assisted in language lab activities and has served on the HCI Advisory Committee since 2012. In addition to her daily job responsibilities of medical interpretation and translation, she enjoys her participation in coordinating Stanford’s internship programs. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmen-lee-interpreter)This online course for Spanish interpreters was originally presented as a webinar by Johanna Parker, M.A., CHI™-Spanish, CMI, on September 24, 2016. The course is accredited by CEAP/CCHI for 1.75 CE hours in performance-based topics.
The presenter discusses when it is appropriate to sight translate intake forms, what challenges intake forms present, the value of sight translating these forms to build skills, and how to prepare for this task, using MRI intake forms as an example.
To receive the Badge of Completion (i.e. certificate) you must complete listening to the recording and answer 4 of the 7 Final Quiz questions correctly. The Badge will be emailed to you as soon as these requirements are met (the text of that email itself serves as proof of completion).
The webinar content is courtesy of Johanna Parker, its author and presenter.
Instructor’s bio: Johanna Parker is a CCHI Certified Healthcare Interpreter™, NBCMI Certified Medical Interpreter, and Federally and California Certified Court Interpreter; and has an M.A. in Translation and Interpretation from the Monterey Institute of International Studies (Spanish <>English). She is Lead Interpreter for Education and Training at Stanford Health Care, a freelance conference interpreter and translator, and a seminar interpreter for the U.S. Department of State. Johanna trains healthcare interpreters around the country and is an adjunct professor at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, where she teaches medical interpreting. She received CHIA's Trainer of the Year award in 2015. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/johanna-parker-3b97a8)This online course was originally presented as a webinar by Margarita Bekker, CoreCHI™, CCHI Commissioner and Lead Russian Interpreter at Stanford University Medical Center, on August 13, 2016. The course is accredited by CEAP/CCHI for 1.5 CE hours in performance-based topics.
Sight translation in healthcare settings often occupies an underprivileged position among the interpreter’s skills. The frequency of this mode’s application varies depending on the institutional policy and often on the interpreter’s own preference to encourage “converting” it to the consecutive interpreting mode when, instead, a provider explains or summarizes a document. Yet, this skill can be argued to be the most difficult one to master as it requires a balance of interpreting and translation skills, with an added challenge of the variety and complexity of healthcare documents themselves.
This course focuses on identifying elements of equivalency constituting accurate sight translation of a healthcare document and corresponding interpreting sub-skills needed to master this mode.
To enroll in this course, click on the course name and login to your account. (If you don't have one yet, create one.) Then click on the course name again and follow enrollment/payment instructions. The fee is $10 (as of 10/31/2016).
To receive the Badge of Completion (i.e. certificate) you must complete listening to the recording and answer 5 of the 8 Final Quiz questions correctly. The Badge will be emailed to you as soon as these requirements are met.
The webinar content is courtesy of Natalya Mytareva and Margarita Bekker, its authors.
Instructor’s bio: Margarita Bekker, CoreCHI™, is Lead Russian Interpreter, Education and Training, at Stanford University Medical Center, and Chair Elect of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters. Margarita is a certified Bridging the Gap trainer. She was a Russian Language Coach at the City College of San Francisco HCI program. Since 2012, she has been a curriculum developer and instructor of healthcare interpreting courses (Russian) for master-level distance learning program at Glendon School of Translation at York University, Toronto, Canada. Margarita is a former President of the California Healthcare Interpreting Association and a former Chairperson of the CHIA Conference Committee.