15,000 successful translations hospital-wide within the first month

At a glance

• Organisation: Rijnstate
• Country: The Netherlands
• Setting: Hospital-wide (including birth care, ENT, and outpatient care)
• Challenge: Overcoming language barriers in high-stress or emergency situations to ensure precise medical communication
• Key outcomes:
  
  • Successfully deployed hospital-wide to all staff with direct patient contact
  • Nearly 15,000 translations completed within the first month of launch
  • Replaced unreliable free tools with medically verified, structured phrases
  • Streamlined care pathways by eliminating the wait time for interpreters in routine and emergency settings

About Rijnstate

Rijnstate is one of the largest healthcare providers in the Netherlands and a primary employer in the region, serving a vast catchment area of 450,000 residents across the Arnhem, Overbetuwe, and Liemers areas. With over 6,000 employees spread across three key locations in Arnhem, Zevenaar, and Elst, the hospital provides top clinical care spanning 28 different medical specialties. Rijnstate is deeply dedicated to delivering excellent medical expertise and highly accessible hospital services to its entire, diverse community.

The challenge: Stress, medical jargon, and the risks of generic apps

In a hospital setting, clear communication is the foundation of safe care. However, when a medical emergency strikes, a non-native patient’s ability to communicate in a secondary language often breaks down completely.

"Something has happened to your child, and naturally you're under a lot of stress," explains Nynke Kunst, Nurse at Rijnstate. "In those moments, languages like English or Dutch can become harder to understand, and people fall back on their native language. Even if you're comfortable speaking basic German or English, medical terminology is something you don't use every day."

Before adopting a dedicated medical tool, healthcare professionals frequently relied on generic consumer translation apps. Rijnstate identified this as a significant safety risk, as free apps lack the precise clinical context needed to prevent critical errors.

Lonneke Geerdink, Project Leader at Rijnstate, highlights this danger with a practical example:

"If you enter 'het juiste been' (the correct leg) into Google Translate, it might return 'the right leg.' But does that mean the correct leg, or the right-side leg? Those are exactly the kinds of distinctions Care to Translate can clarify because it’s specifically designed for medical communication."

The implementation: A scalable, hospital-wide rollout

Rather than restricting language support to specific clinical teams, Rijnstate launched the app with a comprehensive, decentralized approach to fortify the entire care chain.

• Universal access: Rolled out hospital-wide, the app is available to everyone – from reception staff and security personnel to nurse specialists and physicians. On almost any device.
• Dual-function capability: The app pairs a vast library of medically verified, pre-structured phrases with a live translation feature supporting more than 130 languages.
• Built-in verification: To ensure clinical accuracy, staff utilize a reverse-translation function, allowing them to double-check the output and adjust their wording before executing care.
• Balanced care standards: While Care to Translate handles day-to-day and routine interactions, Rijnstate continues to utilize certified interpreters for highly complex or legally sensitive situations, strictly following national Pharos guidelines.

The value delivered

1. Patient safety through clinical certainty 

By shifting from unpredictable machine translation to a medically verified framework, Rijnstate eliminated dangerous ambiguities. The reverse-translation feature gives clinicians peace of mind that their instructions are really understood.

2. Instant support and more efficient workflows

In fast-moving clinical environments like the Birth Care department, waiting for an external interpreter is not always feasible. The app provides instantaneous support, keeping workflows moving smoothly.

"In our view, good communication is not an extra step in care, but the very basis of it," says Angela Steenbreker, Specialized Lead Nurse in Birth Care. "With Care to Translate, we ensure that we understand our non-native patients faster and they feel better heard."

3. Enhanced patient experience

Being able to speak and be understood in one's native language drastically reduces patient anxiety during high-stakes medical moments.

Dr. Bertram de Kleijn, ENT Physician and Head & Neck Surgeon, shares: 

"The use of Care to Translate ensures smooth and reliable communication without having to wait for an interpreter. It's perceived as pleasant by patients who are happy to be able to tell their story in their own language."

Looking ahead

By successfully embedding Care to Translate into its daily operations, Rijnstate has established a new benchmark for accessible, inclusive, and safe healthcare in the Netherlands. The overwhelming success of the first month – supported by 15,000 seamless interactions – proves that digital tools, when properly validated and widely deployed, can bridge critical equity gaps in healthcare.

Moving forward, Rijnstate is uniquely positioned to scale this communication model further. By continually lowering language barriers at every single touchpoint, the hospital ensures that no matter how stressful the medical situation, clear communication remains a fundamental guarantee for every patient who walks through their doors.

Learn more about the Rijnstate implementation here.