Medicare Marketing Translation Case Study

A Process Insight
 

Summary

Every year, the healthcare industry launches a series of marketing campaigns that focus on the Medicare, Health Plan, and HMO sectors. The objective of these marketing efforts is to reinforce positive long-term relationships with current customers, as well as to implement new enrollment initiatives.   Not all members of these target audiences are proficient in English. It is critical that their communication needs are addressed in order for them to improve their understanding of healthcare coverage and guidelines, reduce medical misunderstandings, and alleviate potential malpractice charges. As a translation company with extensive experience in the healthcare industry, we’ve created a specialized process geared specifically toward these healthcare marketing requirements. We’re committed to providing accurate, high-quality translation services in a variety of languages, and this process allows us to do so. During our healthcare marketing initiative, Avantpage provided translation services in Spanish, Chinese Traditional, and Vietnamese, as well as Desktop Publishing Services to recreate the original formats. The overall volume was about 505,000 words. After several years of healthcare marketing experience we understand the specific requirements of these high-volume projects and have implemented process improvement measures to optimize the use of our CAT tools and provide high-quality translations in a timely manner. There are a number of points we have to consider while preparing for these projects.

Requirements

  • Translation of text from English to Spanish, Chinese Tradition, and Vietnamese for an approximate volume of 505,000 words.
  • The translators assigned to these projects must be chosen in accordance with their experience.  All translators must have a track record of experience within the healthcare industry.
  • The translations need to be adapted not only to the subject matter, but also to the geographic and educational requirements of the target audiences.
  • The projects usually have to be delivered within a very short turnaround time. General project management processes have to be adjusted to meet the deadlines.
  • The use of the Avantpage CAT tools and Translation Memory databases must be optimized by following pre-defined processes. This supports consistency and higher quality.
  • DTP services are requested for most MS Word documents. We assign the projects to DTP experts who were trained and familiarized with the format.

The Challenges

  • Project managers have to maintain the client’s set deadlines without compromising the quality of the translation. Text volume has to be anticipated in advance, and vendors must be notified about upcoming projects. All necessary client instructions, reference materials, and linguistic assets have to be obtained and verified before project start. All quality assurance processes have to be implemented, and back-up resources need to be defined and briefed on the project’s scope.
  • Most of our clients request quotes before approving translation projects. The Avantpage team has to ensure that clients are provided with the best word count distribution possible. In order to do so, the Translation Memory database has to be updated with the latest version of the glossaries, and any reference materials provided by the client must be uploaded.
  • The selected translators have to have long-term experience within the US healthcare industry. Avantpage assigns these healthcare translations to our most trusted specialists who are familiar with the types of files that are part of the campaigns (ANOC, EOC, Provider directories, Summary of benefits). Desktop Publishing experts are chosen in accordance with their MS Word formatting skills and ability to respond to short-notice changes.
  • During the project lifecycle, clients can request changes to be made at any time.  Project Managers have to plan accordingly and assess the impact on the project’s variables: schedule, quality, resources, and budget. Change management processes have to be defined and implemented.

We help you to be absolutely certain that you meet the requirements of Medicare marketing for limited English proficient communities. 

Specialized Healthcare Marketing Process

Avantpage has a customized central Translation Memory (TM) engine put in place, where all of our translations are maintained. A TM is essentially a database that stores source and target text, sentence by sentence. It enables not only the storing of all previous translations, but also the storing of terminology preferences specific to a client or subject matter. Several process improvement measures are in place to monitor the data and update it regularly.

A TM engine provides many benefits to your translation project. It allows for maximized quality, consistency, a fast turnaround time, and client customization. 

Change Management

Avantpage has created a specialized process to manage any changes that occur during the project and to monitor the impact of those changes on the deliverables. There are several types of unexpected factors that can cause a delay or affect the overall project. For example, a client might provide new instructions, the source file may be modified, new files could be added to the project, original art files may not be available, etc.  The Avantpage Project Manager has to review the changes, and assess possible impacts on the delivery date, the overall project costs, the quality, and resources availability. In the case that any of these four factors are significantly impacted, Project Managers will notify the client of the resulting impact and await approval.

Healthcare Marketing Project Workflow

  • Initial step: PM receives the initial request from the client
  • Preprocess: Definition of project scope and file preparation
  • Translation Memory: Optimize use of the database, old translations, and reference materials
  • Translation: 3-step process (Translation, Edition, Proofreading)
  • Desktop Publishing: Recreation of original file format in MS Word or other
  • Proofing: QA-process to ensure completeness, consistency, and accuracy
  • Validation & Delivery: Final checks and project delivery
  • Change Management: Project Manager to assess any change implemented by the client, evaluate the impact on project variables (Schedule, Quality, Resources, and Budget) and notify the client when necessary

Results

By following this process, Avantpage can ensure that all Medicare marketing translation projects are completed within the requested timeframes, that all written materials are translated accurately, and that text is linguistically and culturally accurate. When handling medicare marketing materials, Avantpage is committed to providing accurate, high-quality, and easily read and understood EOCs by the Limited English Proficient plan members as well as potential members.

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