The Social Work Department at Children's Hospital arranges for interpretation services for non-English-speaking patient families and for patient families with hearing impairment. All services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Because Spanish and related dialects are the languages of the majority of our non-English speaking patients, Children's Hospital employs three full-time and three PRN ("as needed") Spanish interpreters. They work seven days a week, primarily days and evenings, at the main hospital campus, providing face-to-face interpretation services and document translation. PRN interpreters also provide services at the Children's Hospital Rehabilitation Center.

Children's Hospital arranges for Spanish interpretation through Optimal Phone Interpreters (OPI) when the staff interpreters are not available at the main hospital campus and for some needs at the Children's Hospital Rehabilitation Center. Lighthouse Interpreters and Translators, Inc., provides services for Children's Home Health Care patients and night-shift on-call needs at the main hospital.

For languages other than Spanish, telephone interpretation is arranged through OPI, a 24-hour telephone service with interpreters available in 204 languages and dialects.

The Knoxville Center for the Deaf provides assistance for hearing-impaired patients and families.