Requires general hospitals to provide language assistance services

Free language help for New York patients

The law takes effect upon enactment and requires every New York general hospital to provide free language help. Hospitals must provide reasonable accommodations so patients who need help can access care. They must identify language preferences and needs at the first visit. Medical records must document those preferences, needs, and whether patients accept or refuse language help. Hospitals must maintain skilled interpreters and staff who can help patients with vision or hearing impairments. Help must be available within a reasonable time after a patient, family member, representative, or provider requests it. The Health Department can set those time limits. Each hospital must name a language help coordinator who reports to hospital administration. Hospitals must have written procedures to identify needs promptly and provide ongoing access to help. They must also provide ongoing staff training, patient materials explaining how to get free help, and department-designated signs in public areas, including entrances. Each year, hospitals must assess local language needs using Census and other data. Important forms and instructions must be regularly available, translated or transcribed, for limited-English-speaking groups exceeding 1% of the hospital service-area population. Family, friends, or outside personnel may interpret only when the patient agrees and refuses an offered free hospital interpreter. Hospitals must also address age, skill, privacy, and conflicts of interest. Interpreters under 16 are allowed only in emergencies, and hospitals must document their use in the medical record. Hospitals must reasonably accommodate a family member or representative's presence to help patients with mental or developmental disabilities communicate. The health commissioner can approve longer interim response times for rural hospitals that cannot comply immediately for reasons beyond their control. Those hospitals must show ongoing reasonable efforts to comply and have effective temporary communication plans already in place.