Photo: Rose Jen, Program Leader, Language Services
Communication is key. Nowhere is that more apparent that in a health-care setting.
Health-care providers need to be able to share detailed information, such as post-operative instructions, and know that their patients understand the information.
In 2020 and 2021, the VCH Community Engagement team worked with stakeholders including, SUCCESS, Immigrant Services Society of BC, the South Vancouver Neighbourhood Health Network, Collingwood Neighbourhood Health Network, and VCH medical staff, on an outreach project to determine what interpreting and translation services would benefit patients.
They heard from stakeholders that to best meet the translation needs of the community, an in-house translation team was needed. Currently, the Language Services Team consists of a program leader, program coordinator and contract translators. The team's goal is to provide a centralized system to ensure translation accuracy and cultural appropriateness across the health authority.
Rose Jen, Program Leader, Language Services, manages the new Language Services Team. As a certified medical interpreter and a medical translator, Rose knows the importance of accuracy in medical translation.
“I have experienced the emotion of relaying difficult information to patients, the importance of accuracy and the real-life consequences of miscommunication," says Rose. “I remember interpreting for a senior patient who needed to use a puffer. It turned out they had almost died because they didn't know how to use it properly. Although an interpreter was present in their first appointment, a translated brochure to refer to when they got home would have made a huge difference in their care."
Having an in-house translation team and using the Translation Style Guide will help ensure consistency. Previously, every clinic did their own translations for materials, which led to inconsistencies in language use, terminologies, register, and tone, amongst other linguistic elements.
Now health-care staff have one place to submit their request and access the Translation Framework to help them determine whether their materials are eligible for translation. By streamlining this intake, it also means that previously translated items can be repurposed across various VCH settings.
“On average, we get about five to six translation requests a month," says Rose. “Keep in mind that each request could have five plus languages (the VCH top five spoken languages are Cantonese and Mandarin (62 per cent), Punjabi (7.2 per cent), Spanish (5.78 per cent) and Vietnamese (5.14 per cent)) that the document needs to be translated into, and some are rather large projects so that adds up."
Since demand is high for translation services, the framework created by Community Engagement, helps health-care providers determine if they need translation services, or if interpreting services would be a better fit for what they need.
Health-care providers should answer yes to the following before requesting translation services from the Language Services Team:
Will the content affect patient/client health care access or outcomes?
Have you determined that translated content for this subject isn't already available?
Does the content include complex patient care information?
Does the content impact greater than 1,000 patients?
Will the content be relevant for greater than 12 months?
Will the content be made available online or through patient education?
Is the content written using simple language with as little medical jargon as possible?
“Those who request translations might be surprised to learn how long it takes to translate documents," says Rose. “A two-page, double-spaced document takes about a week to complete because we also need to factor in translator availability, proofreading, and editing. The number of words to translate doesn't always reflect the amount of work. Slogans, terms or expressions without context, or documents that are graphic-heavy, typically take longer to complete. Then there needs to be a post-layout proofreading, so typically, the total time for document translation could take around 7-10 business days."
Learn more about how to submit materials for translation to the Language Services Team.
