Scheduling language interpreters at a medical center: An integer programming approach

Although most hospitals in the United States provide medical services in English, a significant percentage of the population uses languages other than English. Some hospitals have an interpreting service department, while others outsource the service to interpreting agencies. Interpreting service is very important and significantly affects the quality of medical service. If an interpreter is not available, healthcare providers use other online tools such as Google translator to understand patients' needs. However, such tools are not enough and do not satisfy patients. Therefore, developing a scheduling model to enhance the availability of interpreters is an essential to ensure the quality of medical service. In this paper, an integer linear programming model is developed to optimize interpreters' assignments for medical centers. The objective is to minimize the staffing costs of both full time and part time interpreters. A numerical example is conducted to show the robustness of the proposed model. The model is solved and the results are presented.