CPH Document Translation

Scope and Classification

Columbus Public Health intends to contract for Document Translation Services to provide effective written language assistance to clients. The awarded vendor will provide services over a twelve-month period beginning April 1, 2027, through March 31, 2028, with an option to renew for four additional one-year periods ending March 31, 2032.

The purpose of this Request for Proposals (RFP) is to solicit proposals from qualified agencies that can provide professional document translation services to meet the needs of Columbus Public Health staff and customers, and for Franklin County Women Infants and Children (WIC) staff and customers. The services will be scheduled through designated Columbus Public Health staff and WIC staff. Bidders must provide translation services upon request, including occasional urgent or emergency requests.

Timeline

RFP Package Issued October 13, 2026

Pre-Bid Meeting October 20, 2026, at 11a EST

Last Day to Submit Questions October 30, 2026, at 12p (noon) EST

Quote/Submission Due November 9, 2026, at 9a EST

Award Notification on or before December 31, 2026

Contract/Service Start Date April 1, 2027

Pre-Bid Meeting

A pre-bid meeting will occur virtually on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EST. Attendance at this meeting is not required. Vendors will be given the opportunity to speak with the program director and ask questions about the Request for Proposal process and/or requirements. All questions and answers will be recorded, summarized, and posted as an amendment to the RFP after the meeting.

Register in advance for this meeting:

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Online Q & A

Any registered vendor may submit a question through the vendor portal in the RFP. Questions must be submitted electronically by October 30, 2026, at 12:00 pm. For further instructions on how to submit vendor questions through the vendor portal, please see section "Submit Vendor Question Regarding RFQ" provided on page 45 of the City of Columbus Vendor Services User Guide.

Requirements

The successful bidder must meet, and describe how they will meet, the following requirements:

Bidders must guarantee service for all the requested languages in these specifications and adhere to proper billing and invoicing procedures.

Professional Translator Qualifications:

Translators must be competent to communicate effectively in both English and their designated language. The bidder must verify the professional qualification of all employees providing translations services by acceptable standards. These standards include professional certification and completion of a comprehensive screening and training program by the employing agency that qualifies translators for the job, ensuring their ability and appropriateness for the work involved. The bidder must outline and verify the qualifications for each employee providing services in the bid proposal. It is also imperative that the translators are culturally sensitive to programmatic and customer needs, including variances in dialects, expressions, and/or "regionalisms", and can remain objective and unbiased. Translators under the bidding agency must also be able to effectively translate material related to sensitive health topics including but not limited to sexual health and substance use, etc.

Qualifications of translators must include:

Certification from third-party agency, or equivalent level of professional experience and/or higher-education degree in the target language(s)

Certification of proficiency in English and the target language via third-party testing and/or proof of educational or professional experience.

Training in ethical standards

Confidentiality of medical information

Medical terminology

*American Translators Association (ATA) is one such certification agency. Compliance with ISO17100 universal standards is preferred.

Vendor Quality and Feasibility

The bidder will provide a broad range of languages as needed including, but not limited to the following:

Translation services are needed for health and social services-related issues, vital documents, event and program advertising, and clinical appointments for clients of various age groups and cultures. Thus, translations need to be medically accurate, culturally accurate, culturally sensitive, and utilize plain language to ensure understanding of critical health information.

Ability to Handle a Large Volume of Translations: Columbus Public Health serves a high volume of clients in need of translation services. The successful bidder must be equipped to accommodate multiple projects at once, and support at least 500 translations per year.

Translated documents must be produced electronically or as tactile copies when necessary and/or upon request. Braille translation is one such example of a tactile document translation.

Bidder must be able to perform translations for projects that require basic formatting, complex formatting, and Desktop Publishing (DTP) through platforms including but not limited to Microsoft Office, Canva, Adobe Acrobat and Adobe InDesign.

Quality Assurance: Include a copy of your organization's detailed protocol or statement describing how accuracy of translation is assured. This must include proofreading and editing by a second person of equal qualifications to the translator, and the ability to provide documentation of the persons involved with each step. Bidder must also be able to provide field testing and/or peer reviews of translated content upon request.

Confidentiality

The successful bidder must be able to assure Columbus Public Health that any and all information exchanged during translation services will remain strictly confidential, in accordance with current state, federal, and local laws and regulations as outlined in subsequent sections.

Billing and Invoices:

The awarded vendor must provide electronic invoices to Columbus Public Health on a monthly basis. Send electronic copies to Sarah Hevener at or to CPH Language Services at ; and to Erin Stoops at EEStoops@columbus.gov

Each invoice must include the name of the document, language translated, rate(s) charged, date of completion, and total cost. Invoices must be received no later than 30 days prior to due date.

The awarded vendor must provide a monthly utilization summary in Microsoft Excel. The summary must be sent at the same time as the invoice. The summary must list the name of the document, language translated, rate charged, date of completion, requester name and division and program of requester and total cost for all translations. Electronic copies will be sent to Sarah Hevener at or to CPH Language Services at ; and to Erin Stoops at EEStoops@columbus.gov

At the end of year, the awarded vendor will provide a yearly summary (contract year: April 1 to March 31). The summary will list each document translated, the translation language, the rate and total charged for each document, and the clinic/program that requested the translations. An electronic copy to be provided in Microsoft Excel and emailed to Sarah Hevener at or to CPH Language Services at and to Erin Stoops at

Evaluation Criteria

The following criteria, not necessarily listed in order of importance, will be used to review the proposals. The City reserves the right to weigh its evaluation criteria in any manner it deems appropriate. The scoring criteria are outlined below.

Bidder's demonstrated capability to provide the services in the requirements section. This includes an evaluation of the professional qualifications of team involved in providing the requested services and their experience, training, and education. Be sure to describe how language competence is measured or evaluated and how frequently staff are re-assessed. Please also provide details on training provided to staff and how frequently staff are trained in ethics for providing translations, confidentiality of medical information, and medical terminology. This also includes an outline of standard timelines for completion of projects by language and/or length, and an outline of the process for revising projects upon request.

Bidder's experience to perform the proposed services. Past performance of the bidder as reflected by evaluations of this city agency, other city agencies and other previous clients of the bidder with respect to such factors as quality of work, success in meeting deadlines, and the ability of the bidder to fulfill the requirements for the requested services as stated for the appropriate component(s). Please include 3 letters of reference for clients to whom services have been provided within the past 5 years. Columbus Public Health may contact references.

Evaluation of the Bidder's cost and pricing submission. It should be noted that while price is not the only consideration, it is an important one. We will consider unit price per page and/or per word, as well as unit price of any related auxiliary services such as formatting, voiceover production, and costs to expedite work.

Quality of the proposal including a determination that the bidder has submitted a complete and responsive proposal as required by this RFP.

Feasibility of the proposal including an evaluation of the bidder's projected approach and plans to meet the requirements of this RFP to provide the services.

Bid Scoring for Evaluation

Competency: The ability of the bidder to provide qualified personnel to perform the required services as indicated by the experience, training and education, or certification of the bidder's employees; and the ability to provide proof that no less than 2 individuals of equal qualifications were used to translated and proofread/edit each project (30 points).

Quality and Feasibility: The ability of the bidder to provide personnel to perform required services for languages as specified; the ability to provide services in a timely manner as required; ability to maintain confidentiality and ethical standards; and the overall responsiveness and quality of the bid proposal (30 points).

Past Performance: The bidder must outline the work history for providing translation services to clients of similar size and scope. The bidder must include references and evaluations of this city agency, other city agencies and other clients of the bidder reporting factors such as quality of work, success in controlling costs, success in meeting deadlines, and the ability of the bidder to fulfill the requirements for the requested services as required (20 points).

Cost and Price: The cost and pricing structure of bidder's proposal with regards to translation services as stated in the requirements; the ability to invoice as required in a timely manner (20 points)

Proposal Format

Bidders may choose to bid on one or more contracts. Bidders are to use the following format for the proposal:

Format: Proposal is to be 15 pages maximum. Theme font is to be Calibri or Times New Roman, 12 point, single spaced. Submitted via the City of Columbus, Vendor Services.

Bidder Information: Submit name, address, contact person, telephone number, fax number, e-mail address and federal identification number.

Bidder's Company History: Include years in business, nature of business, history of provision of requested services particularly for medical entities and public and nonprofit agencies.

References: Provide agency names, addresses, contact persons and telephone numbers for three clients for whom similar services have been provided. Please include 3 letters of recommendation.

Project Description: Describe how you would meet the needs and requirements of services.

Cost, Pricing Structure and Invoices: Please verify that you can invoice Columbus Public Health properly and provide Translation fee schedule. Your bid must also respond to the following questions:

Can you invoice Columbus Public Health as described in the Billing and Invoices section of the RFP?

What is your cost per word for translation services? Please submit cost for languages specified in the needs and requirements section.

Do you have a minimum number of words? If yes how many?

Describe any web-based systems in existence to allow the client to review status of requests, billing, training, etc.

Do you offer additional services we should be aware of? Please list and provide cost and pricing structure.

Do you offer additional discounts (example exceeding a certain word count in the same year)?

Describe how the bidder provides services that are culturally and linguistically appropriate. National CLAS Standards:

Describe the organization's ability and plan to collect accurate data and generate reports in a timely manner. How will data be collected, maintained and reported back to Columbus Public Health and to the WIC Program.

Describe the overall management structure and responsibilities. Include an overview of how the management will provide oversight on the quality and timeliness of services. Provide an overview of policies and procedures that are in place to assure contract compliance and/or correct issues of noncompliance.

What is your turn around time after receiving a request for each language?

Do you offer resources such as rewrites and revisions? Is there a cost associated with revisions versus new translations?

How do you handle when your agency has made an error in translation?

Provide any other additional information that you feel is pertinent for Columbus Public Health to know about your services (if applicable).

Proposal Submission Deadline

Request for Proposal (RFP) can be downloaded from the City of Columbus' Vendor Services website at Proposals must be submitted online by 9:00 a.m., November 9, 2026. No hard copies or emailed copies will be accepted.

Register: To register to become a vendor, go to . After you register, allow 24 - 48 hours for the City to verify you as a vendor.

HIPAA

The Contractor will perform all services in accordance with the privacy regulations [45 CFR 164.502(e); 164.504(e)] issued pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act [42 USC 1320 -1320d-8] and the terms of the attached Columbus Health Department Privacy Agreement.

Civil Rights:

Columbus Public Health (CPH) and the Contractor agree that as a condition of this contract, there shall be no discrimination against any eligible individual or any employee because of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, handicap, or any other factor as specified in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and subsequent amendments. It is further agreed that the Contractor will comply with all appropriate federal and state laws regarding such discrimination, and the right to and method of appeal will be made available to all persons under this contract.

Americans With Disabilities Act:

The CONTRACTOR, its officers, employees, members, and subcontracts hereby certify current and ongoing compliance with the statutes and regulations pertaining to The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Cultural Competency:

Columbus Public Health (CPH) supports and adheres to the definition of Cultural Competency adopted by the State of Ohio. In doing so, CPH requires that the Contractor adheres to the standard and offers programming and services with this standard in mind:

Cultural Competency is a continuous learning process that builds knowledge, awareness, skills and capacity to identify, understand and respect the unique beliefs, values, customs, languages, abilities and traditions of all people [Ohioans] in order to provide effective programs and services. Refer to the CPH's Customer Non-Discrimination Policy-see attachment CPH's Customer Non-Discrimination Policy.

Incident reporting

Please provide applicant agency's policy regarding incident reports.

Conditions

Equal Employment Opportunity: The Contractor will comply with order 11346 entitled, Equal Employment Opportunity as amended by Executive order 11375, and as supplemented in Department of Labor Regulations (41 CFR, part 60).

Payment

During the term of this contract, the Contractor shall bill by invoice. Columbus Public Health shall reimburse the Contractor according to the scope of services for approved expenses that are incurred in connection with the performance of the duties described within this contract.

Columbus Public Health Translation Services Usage

Top Languages of 2025

Spanish: 85 documents

Haitian Creole: 44 documents

Somali: 36 documents

French: 33 documents

Arabic: 30 documents

*Total translation projects in 2025 were approximately 350, spanning 22 languages and/or unique dialects.