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APPENDIX FMultilingual Health ResourceExchange ProjectUCare MinnesotaCLAS Standards Met: 1, 4, 5, 7, and 12See page 12 for list of CLAS StandardsISSUE. According to a 2003 Minnesota Legislative report, disparities in health statusbetween the majority population and populations of color and American Indians are, in somecases, getting worse. In addition, with 124 languages now spoken in Minnesota (some of themost common being Hmong, Russian, Somali, Spanish and Vietnamese) UCare saw a greatneed to collaborate with other partners to address these health disparities and overcomelanguage barriers to health care. The production and distribution of health materials forLimited English Proficient (LEP) patients can be a significant expense and logisticalchallenge for any one health care organization to undertake. UCare invests time andresources to partner with communities to address their cultural and linguistic needs, which isessential to improving their health status. Empowering LEP members is facilitated throughcollaboratives such as the Multilingual Health Resource Exchange because they increase thenumber of culturally and linguistically appropriate resources available to the members and,thereby, enhance the members' ability to understand and act on the information they need tostay healthy and to receive care when ill.DISCUSSION. In carrying out it’s mission “to improve the health of members throughinnovative services and partnerships across communities”, UCare noted that LEP patientsdeserve more understandable information about their health and their providers needed bettertools to deliver health and social services that are specific to their patients’ cultures.Providing multilingual health resources in a user-friendly, central database is one way toaddress this need. As a way to accomplish this, UCare partnered with some other healthplans, hospitals, clinic groups, public health organizations, and other groups tocollaboratively establish the Multilingual Health Resource Exchange, a web-basedclearinghouse for health consumer materials specifically developed for Limited EnglishProficient (LEP) patients.The project began in 2001, with a sharing of health education materials among more than adozen other Minnesota health care organizations. In 2002-2003 the efforts led to the creationof an internet database of multilingual health resources. The goals of the Multilingual HealthResource Exchange (Exchange) include:• Sharing information about all available translated materials;• Exchange of translated written, audio and video health education resources throughan online database;• Collection of additional resource information about health education approaches thatwork for patients whose primary language is not English; and• Conduct a gap analysis of materials to determine what new materials need to bedeveloped in particular languages.42
The funding partners make this clearinghouse available to their network of providers at nocost to them. The Exchange web site was developed to allow centralized access for providersto written health materials as well as detailed information about audiovisual materials invarious languages, and easy links to other national sources of information about translatedhealth education materials. The Exchange web site is located at www.health-exchange.net.The Exchange partnership requires participating organizations to attend monthly meetings toreview existing materials and prioritize needs for new ones. Each year, the primary goal ofthe Exchange is to produce or collect new printed pieces to add to the database, based onlanguage and topic priorities.As a result of this project, UCare’s experience has shown that it is vital to join resourcesacross health organizations and community systems to address quality concerns andimplement improvements in language access services. This collaboration contributes tointegrated care across providers and health and human service systems. Coordinating effortsto consolidate multilingual resources for easy access yields a greater capacity to offerresources statewide (especially reaching rural areas that have had limited access to LEPresources and trained interpreters). It is important for health care "competitors" to join effortsin order to better serve LEP patients receiving care across health systems.BENEFITS/RESULTS. Since the Exchange began its work in 2001 and created the webbasedclearinghouse in 2002-2003 with an initial start up cost of approximately $43,000 inthe first year, it has built a database with over 1,600 materials (as of October 2006) in thelanguages needed most often by LEP residents in Minnesota. The Exchange has also postedadditional resources on the site that guide providers in how to share health information in amanner that accommodates the learning needs of diverse patients. The benefits of thiscollaboration include:• LEP patients have the same access to critical health information as those who readand speak English fluently—access that is their legal right.• Health educators developing new materials are guided by research on readable andculturally appropriate materials.• Health care organizations share information and resources to prevent costlyduplication.Each Exchange partner organization pays $2,500/organization each year to support the webbasedclearinghouse. By participating in the Multilingual Health Resource Exchange eachorganization saves thousands of dollars annually. As of October 2006, the Exchange databasehas over 1,600 materials in it. If one conservatively assumes it costs $300 to producelanguage-specific versions of each material, this would give a value of $480,000 to thecurrent Exchange collection of materials.LESSONS LEARNED/NEXT STEPS. The Exchange has established an AdvisoryCommittee that now meets bimonthly to continue a gap analysis to identify additional healthmaterials needed for particular language groups in Minnesota. The Exchange is addingapproximately 65 new translated pieces to its online library each month. The AdvisoryCommittee is currently working on marketing the Exchange and promoting utilization of theweb site by more providers throughout the state. A recent survey of Exchange web site usersfound that 85.5% found the translated material they were looking for and 98.8% of thosesurveyed felt that the Exchange site is easy to use.43
Page 1 and 2: MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE FORCULTURA
Page 4 and 5: PREFACEToday there are more than 30
Page 7 and 8: Major Themes• Minority and LEP Co
Page 9 and 10: INTRODUCTIONHighlights:• Overview
Page 12 and 13: NATIONAL STANDARDS FORCULTURALLY AN
Page 14 and 15: hospital’s culturally diverse pat
Page 16: equiring interpretation, clinical a
Page 19 and 20: CLAS BUSINESS CASE PROJECTS AND RES
Page 22 and 23: ProjectOrganizational SettingCLAS A
Page 24 and 25: BUSINESS CASE THEMES,KEY FINDINGS A
Page 26 and 27: specific purpose can result in larg
Page 28 and 29: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONSThe
Page 30 and 31: APPENDICESAppendix A: Bilingual Emp
Page 32 and 33: continues to provide linguistically
Page 34 and 35: start for the children at YCHC. The
Page 36 and 37: patients. This has become an attrac
Page 38 and 39: information exchange. For example,
Page 40 and 41: • Technology: A dedicated web sit
Page 44 and 45: WHO TO CONTACT. For more informatio
Page 46 and 47: its internal expertise to meet the
Page 48 and 49: Remote Video/Voice MedicalInterpret
Page 50 and 51: APPENDIX IStaff Volunteer Interpret
Page 52 and 53: APPENDIX JTeleSaludMolina Healthcar
Page 54 and 55: APPENDIX KTraditional Safety Net Te
Page 56 and 57: Training for Interpreters in aHealt
Page 58 and 59: and training purposes. From 2001 th
Page 60 and 61: linguistically appropriate services
Page 62 and 63: APPENDIX O- Project MethodologyThe
Page 64: A Family Physician's Practical Guid

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