As San Francisco’s only public hospital, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG) serves a population as diverse as our city. With a large population of patients who primarily speak other languages, it’s critical that equitable services like Medical Interpretation are offered to those who need it.

A 2005 Equity & Innovation grantee, the Medical Interpretation program services over half a million requests a year and is eliminating barriers for patients whose primary language is not English at ZSFG while consistently evolving to service the community efficiently.

Designed as a way to supplement patient care at San Francisco’s only public hospital since its early days, today the Equity & Innovation (formerly Hearts) Grants program has grown to foster new ideas, fund creative approaches to patient care, and place value on programs fighting inequities in health care delivery.

The Equity & Innovation Grants program has given the medical interpretation team the boost they needed to serve more patients at ZSFG. Today, the interpretation services have developed into a well-oiled machine with an incredible response time, ensuring no patient waits for critical health information in their native tongue.

Through both in-house and contracted interpretation services, all telephonic interpretation requests are met with an average wait time of 30 seconds, with a maximum wait time of 3 minutes. The department also offers a wide range of services including: 

• In-person interpretation
• Video interpretation
• ASL interpreters (In-person and video)

The Foundation is proud to support programs like this that ensure that every patient at ZSFG receives the equitable care they deserve.