Each acute care hospital in this state shall:
(1) Develop and annually review a policy on the provision of interpreter services to non-English-speaking patients;
(2) Ensure the availability of interpreter services to patients whose primary language is spoken by a group comprising not less than five per cent of the population residing in the geographic area served by the hospital;
(3) Prepare and maintain a list of qualified interpreters;
(4) Notify hospital staff of the requirement to provide interpreters to non-English-speaking patients;
(5) Post multilingual notices of the availability of interpreters to non-English-speaking patients;
(6) Review standardized forms to determine the need for translation for use by non-English-speaking patients;
(7) Consider providing hospital staff with picture and phrase sheets for communication with non-English-speaking patients; and
(8) Establish liaisons to non-English-speaking communities in the geographic area served by the hospital.
(P.A. 00-119; P.A. 15-34, S. 1.)
History: P.A. 15-34 amended Subdiv. (2) to delete “, to the extent possible,”.