Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters Receives NCCA Accreditation for the CoreCHI™ Certification

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI) announced today the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) granted accreditation to the CoreCHI™—the one and only certification which every healthcare interpreter of every language needs to have and can achieve with and through CCHI. The CoreCHI certification measures 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 tests the interpreter’s critical thinking, ethical decision-making, and cultural responsiveness skills needed to perform their duties in any healthcare setting.

“Competence of healthcare interpreters is an extremely important component of the quality of patient care,” said CCHI Chair Alejandro Maldonado, CHI™-Spanish. “The core certification for all interpreters—CoreCHI, after going through a very rigorous process, was accredited by NCCA. This accreditation testifies to CCHI’s adherence to the highest national certification standards and makes us the first ones in the field to offer this certification to all interpreters,” he emphasized.

“This makes the CoreCHI a valid and reliable tool that allows hospitals and healthcare systems to work with certified interpreters of all languages today,” Maldonado said. “The CoreCHI provides access to a valid core certification to interpreters of any refugee language. Best of all, patients with limited English proficiency, their families, and healthcare providers nationwide can get high quality interpreter services now.”

CCHI received NCCA accreditation for the CoreCHI certification program by submitting an application demonstrating the program’s compliance with the NCCA’s Standards for the Accreditation of Certification Programs. NCCA is the accrediting body of the Institute for Credentialing Excellence. Since 1977, the NCCA has been accrediting certifying programs based on the highest quality standards in professional certification to ensure the programs adhere to modern standards of practice in the certification industry. To view the standards visit http://www.credentialingexcellence.org/ncca. The NCCA accredited the CoreCHI certification for a five-year period, expiring June 30, 2019.

CoreCHI certification allows all hospitals, health systems, and healthcare providers to efficiently show their compliance with The Joint Commission’s interpreter qualifications requirement, National CLAS Standard 7, and Title VI requirements for meaningful language access today.

NCCA accreditation of the CoreCHI certification is a third-party stamp of approval and validation that this certification truly measures the core professional knowledge of the healthcare interpreters. “CCHI has always followed the best psychometric practices and highest national certification standards when developing its exams. NCCA accreditation is another confirmation of that,” Maldonado said. Hiring or contracting certified interpreters has a direct and positive effect on patient safety, reducing readmission rates, and eliminating health disparities.

The CoreCHI examination is a multiple-choice exam in English, available year-around, and delivered online in a secure test center environment in all 50 states of the U.S. and in Canada. Interpreters apply for CoreCHI certification on the CCHI website at the application page, which is http://www.cchicertification.org/healthcare-interpreters/healthcare-interpreters.

Founded in July 2009, CCHI is a professional certification organization acting in the public interest by establishing and enforcing education, examination, experience and ethics requirements for certification.

CCHI also administers a performance certification—the Certified Healthcare Interpreter™ (CHI™) which provides a language-specific assessment of the interpreter’s performance skills. CCHI received NCCA accreditation of the CHI certification program in 2012. It is currently available for interpreters of Arabic, Spanish and Mandarin. Interpreters of these languages begin their certification process at the CoreCHI level and then must go further and pass a language-specific oral performance exam to attain the CHI certification.

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 LEP individuals.