Governing for Results 13 - Washington State Digital Archives

Health Care Authority
Basic Health Translation Process, Phase II
The turnaround time for all language translation of Basic Health's member
correspondence had been 4.98 days. Previous streamlining and process
improvement decreased that time by approximately three days, to 2.01 days.
Spanish translation, because of the volume, averaged 3.08 days. The time spent
in the translation process delays the staff's response time to members'
applications and letters of concern, including serious or time-sensitive issues.
The team felt that further improvements could be made by centralizing the
translation efforts, and the Spanish language pilot began in October 2000. A
Spanish translator was added for instances in which correspondence is received,
which is now translated immediately upon receipt.
Results
★ Spanish translation process time decreased from 3.08 to .17 days, allowing
faster response time to member correspondence.
★ The translation process moved from direct customer service staff to
administrative staff, adding .75 FTE to front line direct customer support.
★ The improvement in turnaround time occurred during a time of increased
member correspondence, from 166 Spanish translations to 395 per month.
★ The three-step process was streamlined to one step. Previously, a document
requiring Spanish translation was received, routed to a customer service staff
member for translation, returned to receiving to be scanned, and routed to the
approprite account representative for action/response. Now the document is
received, translated, scanned and routed by one administrative staff member
within four hours of receipt
Team Name: Translation Improvement Team
Team members: Preston Cody, Nicole Ross, Cindy McKinzie, Gail Burris,
Elvia SanMartin, Anton Cooper, Lois Johanson, Sun Watkins, Kyle Vu and Jose
Gonzalez
CONTACT: Preston Cody, (360) 412-4361
92