Question

A Business Process Outsourcing centre, 'Chromosome' which deals in conversion of voice reports dictated by physicians and other healthcare providers into text format has 40 employees. They ensure that their employees are well versed in at least one foreign language and one Indian language. The employees are also given the required training to ensure that the reports are processed correctly as they are the backbone of the patients' medical history. On frequent complaints about some of its employees, it was observed that they were facing problems in decoding the message as they were not very proficient with the language in which the voice message was received. As a result, they would make mistakes causing different meaning to the message. Not only this, sometimes there were technical words used in voice reports, the actual meaning of which was also not understood by the employees. Due to this, 'Chromosome' was slowly losing its business to competitors. The above case highlights two communication barriers. Identify and explain these barriers.

Hint:

Communication barrier questions often test language and technical jargon issues in specialized fields like healthcare/law.

Answer 1

1. Language Barrier: - Cause: Limited proficiency in source language - Impact: Misinterpreted medical instructions - Example: Confusing "dysphasia" (speech disorder) with "dysphagia" (swallowing disorder) - Solution: Advanced language certification programs
2. Technical/Jargon Barrier: - Cause: Unfamiliar medical terminology - Impact: Incorrect transcriptions affecting treatment - Example: Mishearing "15 mg" as "50 mg" - Solution: Specialized medical terminology training - 27 percent of medical errors originate from communication issues (WHO) - Healthcare BPOs invest ~15 percent of budget in language training