making the business case for culturally and linguistically appropriate ...

APPENDIX MWeb RepositoryLA Care Health PlanCLAS Standards Met: 4, 5, 7 and 13See page 12 for list of CLAS StandardsISSUE. The language needs of the limited English proficient (LEP) patient populationenrolled in L.A. Care Health Plan (L.A. Care) exceed available bilingual providers. To bettermeet the challenge of providing culturally and linguistically appropriate care for a growingnumber of immigrant and LEP patients that the organization serves, L.A. Care has initiated anumber of innovative programs. Among these programs is the creation of a Web Repositoryof plan materials that have been translated into many of the different languages spoken byplan enrollees.DISCUSSION. L.A. Care Health Plan (L.A. Care) is a public health maintenanceorganization serving more than 750,000 people in Los Angeles County. L.A. Carecontracts with more than 10,000 health care providers annually, health plans, IndependentProvider Associations (IPA’s) and Medical Groups, community clinics and hospitals. Thehealth plan serves large populations with limited English proficiency. More than 55percent of patients prefer a language other than English, including Spanish (45 percent ofenrollees), Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin and 27 others.The Cultural and Linguistic Services Department (CLS) at L.A. Care worked internally, withother L.A. Care departments and externally, at the health plan, provider clinic, IndividualPractice Associations (IPAs), and county/private hospital levels to identify commonly usedwritten patient information forms and materials. L.A. Care then coordinated the translationand cultural competency review of the selected documents. Finally, a cross departmentalteam composed of CLS members and Marketing and Information Systems staff workedexternally with a web developer to complete the development of the Provider and MemberWeb Repositories of translated materials.The Web Repository Project was completed in 24 months. CLS spent the first 12 monthsseeking assistance from health care providers to select appropriate materials for theRepository. The next six months were spent on translation of the materials and theconceptualization of user friendly methods to search for translated materials online. In thefinal phase, L.A. Care and the web developers worked on building the Repository.Included in the repository are a number of language tools including the Glossary of ManagedCare Terms and Human Anatomy and Medical Terminology Guides. L.A. Care was alsosuccessful in achieving its original goal of developing a web resource that enhanced thedelivery of culturally and linguistically appropriate services. Originally, L.A. Careenvisioned a single database of translated materials available only to the providers, withapproximately 20 documents in seven threshold languages. The final product included twodifferent repositories with over 400 translated materials in ten languages.BENEFITS/RESULTS. Over the past two years, L.A. Care has provided written translatedmaterials to the provider community and aided in the provision of culturally and59