Hospitals and healthcare organizations must provide language services, but finding the right balance of interpretation and translation can take time and effort. For example, how can you make the most of your budget? Or are there any circumstances where translation may be more helpful than interpretation?
CyraCom’s partnership with UK HealthCare, the health system of the University of Kentucky, provides a strong example of utilizing a health system’s language services budget in a creative way. In addition to on-site, phone, and video interpretation, UK HealthCare prioritizes translation projects to help their limited-English proficient (LEP) patients feel comfortable with processes and understand the services they’re receiving. Let’s dive into how UK HealthCare provides an excellent patient experience using translation.
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Sarah Hesler, the Director of Language Services for UK HealthCare, is a National Board-Certified Medical Interpreter for Spanish. She joined the UK HealthCare team in 2012 and loves discovering solutions that help her community’s LEP patients.
UK HealthCare serves thousands of patients within multiple hospitals, 80+ specialized clinics, and 140+ outreach programs. With 13.5% of the Lexington-Fayette population speaking languages other than English at home (US Census Bureau), the most common foreign languages are Spanish, Swahili, Arabic, Nepali, Japanese, and French.
Like many healthcare language services experts, Hesler has to get creative with the budget to ensure legal compliance and equitable treatment for LEP patients. “All of our LEP patients have an interpreter available when they meet with our staff,” Hesler said, “but we needed more solutions outside the examination room. That’s where translation is such a big help.”
“Everything is translated into Spanish, as it’s our most common language after English,” Hesler stated. “For other languages, we prioritize solutions in a focused effort. We really think through what’s best for the patient.”
Hesler works with staff members in various specialties and locations throughout the UK HealthCare system to find the best solutions to improve communication. Once she has more information about a problem patients and staff have encountered, Hesler turns to CyraCom for advice.
“I’m part of a small department,” Hesler explains, “and I don’t always know the best solution for our challenges. I love that I can reach out to CyraCom and rely on their expertise.”
Hesler works with a dedicated project manager on all of her translation projects. “My project manager, Maura Halliday, is amazing! I always get a quick response to any question I have.” In addition to a robust support system and professional human translators, UK HealthCare’s partnership with CyraCom gives their team access to an affordable desktop publishing system within CyraCom’s secure Translation Portal.
Watch how easy it is to use CyraCom’s secure Translation Portal,Some UK HealthCare staff members had challenges reading answers on medical history forms written in languages other than English. This obstacle made the intake process more challenging and time-consuming for new patients and the front desk staff.
Hesler worked with CyraCom to reformat UK HealthCare’s intake forms into a bilingual format. “I didn’t have to do a thing—I just told my Project Manager, Maura, what we wanted to accomplish, and she helped us develop ideas. Then CyraCom’s team worked on the translation and handled the tedious reformatting. It saved me so much time, and the final version looked great!”
By reformatting forms to include discreet, small-font English translations in addition to the patient’s primary language, UK HealthCare staff could quickly review and understand the completed forms without needing an interpreter’s assistance. After the success of the first bilingual forms, UK HealthCare expanded the languages offered on their intake forms for even better accessibility.
UK HealthCare benefits from CyraCom’s detailed quality assurance process:
One of UK HealthCare’s OB clinics has a high percentage of LEP patients, as it’s located in a neighborhood where many immigrant and refugee communities are forming. The clinic often had a bottleneck at the front desk and requested additional dual-handset interpretation phones to resolve the issue.
When Hesler went to the clinic to observe the check-in process and talk with the staff, she discovered that many patients didn’t know what to do when they entered the clinic. There was a sign-in sheet, but LEP patients didn’t know they were supposed to add their names and wait to be called to the front desk. Some patients went directly to the front desk to get help, while others would sit down without letting the staff know they were there.
Hesler and the clinic staff brainstormed ideas and realized additional interpreter phones in the lobby wouldn’t solve the problem. Instead, they found a translation solution.
UK HealthCare worked with CyraCom to create “Welcome Cards” in the clinic’s top 12 languages. The cards explain the check-in process in a simple, step-by-step format. With the help of the cards, patients could follow the steps and have the necessary documents ready when called to the front desk. This simple solution resolved the bottleneck at the front desk and made the clinic’s check-in process more efficient.
UK HealthCare’s language services help patients have a better experience from the moment they walk in the door.
Following federal mandates, UK HealthCare uses posters in building lobbies to notify LEP patients about their right to interpretation services at no personal cost. The posters include translated text from the 15 most common languages in greater Lexington. This simple solution helps UK HealthCare patients feel at ease knowing they have free access to better communication with the help of an interpreter.
Create Your Own “Interpreters Available” PostersCyraCom offers clients many tools and support services, including a free downloadable template to create custom “Interpreters Available” posters.
Like many healthcare organizations, UK HealthCare often posts information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in their facilities. Translating posters with critical information allows LEP patients to increase their knowledge to protect themselves from recent outbreaks. For example, UK HealthCare hung translated posters about the latest Ebola warnings. They wanted to inform patients about their higher risk of Ebola exposure if they’d recently traveled to particular countries. Without translation, LEP patients wouldn’t know to inform their care providers if they recently traveled to any of the highlighted regions, which could result in not getting the necessary treatment. CyraCom translated the text into the languages most commonly found in affected regions while preserving the map and posters’ formatting with their desktop publishing service.
UK HealthCare translates educational materials into multiple languages to help LEP patients better understand their conditions. For example, a diabetes educator hosted an event with the assistance of an interpreter. When they passed out the printed information, the attendees were delighted to see it was written in Kinyarwanda. “Typically, no one gets excited about educational materials—yet the translated collateral made it happen!“ Hesler said. Instead of reviewing English materials line-by-line with the help of an interpreter at the event, the participants could take the information home and read it on their own time in their primary language.
Rather than accepting the first solution presented, UK HealthCare used the desired outcome to analyze and create more efficient processes with translated materials. If your staff presents a challenge, take a step back and brainstorm opportunities to use language services to your advantage.
Many healthcare facilities have large Spanish-speaking populations, but may not offer as much support in other languages. UK HealthCare saw an opportunity to better support LEP patients who speak Swahili, Arabic, Nepali, Japanese, and French using translated content.
Sarah trusts CyraCom to ensure UK HealthCare’s translation projects have localized content in a clean, reader-friendly format. She never has to make layout changes or other adjustments, saving her time to focus on the patients she serves.
In business for 25 years, CyraCom is a language services leader that provides interpretation and translation services to thousands of organizations across the US and worldwide.
Normas de la Comisión Conjunta para el acceso lingüístico