The Qualified Bilingual Staff (QBS) Assessment is a tool developed by Kaiser Permanente and administered by ALTA. The purpose of the QBS exam is to determine the level of target language proficiency of medical staff members who identify themselves as bilingual. Specifically, the QBS is designed to assess staff members’ ability to directly communicate with target language-speaking patients in a medical setting.
The Kaiser QBS assessment is administered via the telephone and is available twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week, with results available within forty-eight business hours. All prompts are pre-recorded to ensure that test-takers have an identical testing experience.
Once your organization is registered, you will be provided access to ALTA’s site for generating candidate codes. One code must be generated for each candidate taking the exam. The code is unique to the candidate it is generated for, and is good for one use only. Candidates simply dial the number provided, enter their access code, and follow the system prompts.
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Section I is an introduction and warm-up exercise intended to help put the candidates at ease with the recording system and to allow them to practice their target language briefly prior to the formal portion of the exam.
Section II of the exam contains 11 dialogues that the candidate must render from English into the target language or from the target language into English.
Section III of the exam contains a dialogue between a nurse and a patient that the candidate must render in both English and the target language.
This section assesses a candidate’s knowledge of medical terminology in both English and the target language.
This section assesses the candidate’s ability to perform a simple sight translation.
The exam is scored using objective scoring units and a subjective assessment protocol. The objective units represent significant words, phrases, and clauses that are found in and critical to staff/patient communication. These include specialized medical terminology, register variation, rhetorical features, general vocabulary, grammatical structures, and appropriate sociocultural discourse. Candidates are also assessed in the five subjective scoring categories of “Pronunciation,” “Grammar,” “Conduit Role,” “Conveying the Meaning,” and “Fluidity in Language Transition.”
A candidate must score a prescribed percentage and achieve an acceptable performance level on the subjective scoring scale in order to obtain a passing score.
To register your organization for Language Testing, or if you have additional questions, please contact us by email or telephone at 404.920.3832.
Ability to provide services in the target language where knowledge of medical terminology is not required.
Ability to provide services in the target language in various healthcare settings.
To register your organization for Language Testing, or if you have additional questions, please contact us through the form, or by email or telephone at 404.920.3832.
Kaiser Qualified Bilingual Staff (QBS) Program/assessment is a tool developed by Kaiser Permanente and administered by ALTA.
QBS programs are often implemented in healthcare settings that train and certify bilingual employees to act as interpreters. It goes beyond basic fluency to teach the legal and ethical requirements of interpreting in a medical context to ensure accurate communication and better patient outcomes.
The Qualified Bilingual Staff (QBS) assessment has five sections: a Conversational/Social warm-up to familiarize candidates with the recording system, a Customer Service section with 11 dialogues rendered between English and the target language, a Nursing Diagnosis and Instructions dialogue between a nurse and patient, a Medical Terminology section, and a Sight Translation section.
The QBS is administered by telephone using pre-recorded prompts, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so every candidate has an identical testing experience. While the test itself is not monitored live by a human proctor, every response is scored separately by trained evaluators using both objective and subjective criteria.
Level 1 reflects the ability to provide services in the target language in settings where medical terminology is not required. Level 2 reflects the ability to provide services in the target language across a range of healthcare settings, including those requiring medical vocabulary. We recommend Level 2 for nurses working in a clinical setting, where accurate use of medical terminology is essential to patient care.
The tests assess different roles. The QBS and the Clinician Cultural and Linguistic Assessment (CCLA) are both Kaiser Permanente–developed tools administered by ALTA: the QBS evaluates nurses on their ability to communicate directly with patients in routine clinical encounters, while the CCLA is designed specifically for bilingual physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants testing whether they can deliver culturally competent care without an interpreter.
View our test prep materials or FAQ’s for common questions about taking a test.