Case Study: Employee Assessments

How A Public Health Plan Agency Ensures and Tracks Translations Accuracy

Summary

CalOptima is public agency offering health insurance programs to diverse communities such as those with limited English proficiency (LEP). To effectively meet the needs of their consumers, they require a high standard of language accuracy in their products and services.

Avantpage has partnered with them to reinstate their staff translation reviews as formalized quarterly Employee Assessments, driving language access to higher standards.  

Logo for CalOptima, with tagline "A Public Agency"

Carlos S., Cultural & Linguistics Manager

“The assessment has been great, it’s a great tool for us to ensure the translations are the best they can be for notifying and informing our members… The whole assessment has been really good… [Avantpage] did a really good job at meeting the needs we have.”  

Project Scope

CalOptima is committed to equal and meaningful access to critical services like healthcare programs. Without highly accurate translations, the organization could risk 

  • Miscommunications that negatively impact the health of their members
  • Inaccurate translations leading to potential legal implications
  • A decrease of communications efficiency
  • Mistrust among LEP consumers

CalOptima wanted a way to evaluate their staff linguists in a consistent way, using an objective and professional third party. By proactively anticipating translation quality and improvements with quarterly reviews and yearly performance goals, CalOptima reduces these risks and places themselves at the forefront of reducing health disparities among LEP communities. 

Solution

Avantpage and CalOptima came together for a customized approach to bilingual assessment services to guarantee the high integrity and continuous improvement of their Cultural & Linguistics Department. The employee assessments were created across six threshold languages for ten staff linguists, utilizing: 

Rubrics with five competence criteria: source language, target language, translation accuracy, cultural relevance, and research

i

Authentic evaluation materials for meaningful and relevant simulation 

Z

A continuous method of documenting and tracking performance 

Outcome

Medical translatorsrequire continuous training, education, professional development, cultural awareness, software skills, and more to ensure quality and complianceof their translations for LEP communities. The employee assessments created are a proactive solution to safeguard improvement and accuracy of translations. Avantpage and CalOptima customized these services as a continuous and proactive measure of language access to:  

Meet department accuracy goals of 90% and above 

Track and document testing during quarterly performance reviews 

Assist in highlighting areas for improvement 

Leverage Avantpage’s expertise as an objective and professional agency 

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More Info

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