LOUISVILLE — An influx of immigrants has forced city officials to set up a pool of about 150 interpreters on-call for hospitals, courts, social services, businesses and other groups.

        More than 5,749 Bosnian, Cuban, African and Central American refugees have settled in the area since 1996, said Becky Jordan, director of Catholic Charities Migration and Refugee Services.

        “There are many immigrants out there who are not getting the services they need because of the language barrier,” said Donna Craig, director of the city's Office for International and Cultural Affairs. Providers such as doctors' offices are having a “horrible, horrible time,” she said.

        Ms. Craig's office has spent the last month recruiting bilingual residents fluent in Spanish, Bosnian, Arabic, Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian and Somali. Interpreters will set their own fees and will receive training Saturday. They are expected to be available next month.

        Jefferson County court employee Toni Creasy knows firsthand about the difficulties finding interpreters.

        Since she began her work seeking courtroom interpreters five years ago, the number of cases requiring translators has jumped from fewer than five a day to nearly 30.

        As volume has increased, so have the number and obscurity of languages. Ms. Creasy recently scurried to track down people who speak French Creole, Somali and Quiche, an Indian language of Guatemala.

        Ms. Craig said the city's efforts at creating a network of bilingual interpreters was spurred in part by hospitals and clinics facing increasing numbers of non-English-speaking patients.

        Under the Civil Rights Act, they're required to provide an interpreter.

        Finding one isn't always easy. Officials at the Jefferson County tuberculosis clinic sometimes have to send walk-in patients home because they can't find an interpreter. And doctors don't like to risk using someone who doesn't have a good grasp of medical terminology.

        Two years ago, University of Louisville Hospital turned to a company that does translations over the telephone, in part because interpreters were becoming increasingly difficult to track down, said hospital spokesman Ken Marshall.

        Saturday's training session will focus on the city's most pressing needs: interpreters who speak Spanish and are familiar with medical terminology and ethics.

        Most emergency workers already have a network of translators, but some officials said the more ways they have to reach an interpreter, the better. Louisville police, for example, use interpreters from the American Red Cross. But recognizing the growing prevalence of Spanish, some police are being trained in the basics of that language.

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