Some hospitals in southeastern Michigan are "stepping up the intensity of [their] language and cultural offerings to appeal to growing ethnic populations in a region where the competition for paying patients continues to increase," the Detroit Free Press reports. Moe Rusdom, manager of the Clinical Ethics Center and Interpreter Services at Oakwood Hospital, said demand for translation services at Oakwood is expected to increase to about 2,600 encounters this year, compared with 367 in 2003. In the first six months of this year, Oakwood interpreters provided translation service in 21 languages. The hospital is one of a "handful" in the area that employs full-time medically qualified interpreters, the Free Press reports. In addition, the region's Botsford General Hospital offers prenatal classes in Japanese; Harper University Hospital offers halal and kosher meals; and Beaumont Hospitals and St. John Health offer bloodless surgery options for Jehovah's Witnesses and Christian Scientists, according to the Free Press (Merx, Detroit Free Press, 8/10).