Full Text of SB2929 98th General Assembly
SB2929eng 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | AN ACT concerning health facilities.
| 2 | | Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
| 3 | | represented in the General Assembly:
| 4 | | Section 5. The Language Assistance Services Act is amended | 5 | | by changing Section 15 as follows:
| 6 | | (210 ILCS 87/15)
| 7 | | Sec. 15. Language assistance services. | 8 | | (a) To insure access to
health care information and | 9 | | services for
limited-English-speaking or non-English-speaking | 10 | | residents and deaf residents,
a health facility must do the | 11 | | following:
| 12 | | (1) Adopt and review annually a policy for providing | 13 | | language assistance
services to patients with language or | 14 | | communication barriers. The policy shall
include | 15 | | procedures for providing, to the extent possible as | 16 | | determined by the
facility, the use of an interpreter | 17 | | whenever a language or communication
barrier
exists, | 18 | | except where the patient, after being informed of the | 19 | | availability of
the interpreter service, chooses to use a | 20 | | family member or friend who
volunteers to interpret. The | 21 | | procedures shall be designed to maximize
efficient use of | 22 | | interpreters and minimize delays in providing interpreters | 23 | | to
patients. The procedures shall insure, to the extent |
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| 1 | | possible as determined
by the facility, that
interpreters | 2 | | are available, either on the premises or accessible by | 3 | | telephone,
24 hours a day. The facility shall annually | 4 | | transmit to the Department of
Public Health a
copy of the | 5 | | updated policy and shall include a description of the | 6 | | facility's
efforts to
insure adequate and speedy | 7 | | communication between patients with language or
| 8 | | communication barriers and staff.
| 9 | | (2) Develop, and post in conspicuous locations, | 10 | | notices that advise patients
and their families of the | 11 | | availability of interpreters, the procedure for
obtaining | 12 | | an interpreter, and the telephone numbers to call for | 13 | | filing
complaints concerning interpreter service problems, | 14 | | including, but not limited
to, a
TTY number for persons who | 15 | | are deaf or hard of hearing. The notices shall be posted, | 16 | | at a
minimum, in the emergency room, the admitting area, | 17 | | the facility entrance, and
the
outpatient area. Notices | 18 | | shall inform patients that interpreter services are
| 19 | | available on request, shall list the languages most | 20 | | commonly encountered at the facility for which interpreter | 21 | | services
are available, and shall instruct patients to | 22 | | direct complaints regarding
interpreter services to the | 23 | | Department of Public Health, including the
telephone
| 24 | | numbers to call for that purpose.
| 25 | | (3) Notify the facility's employees of the language | 26 | | services available at the facility and train them on how to |
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| 1 | | make those language services available to patients.
| 2 | | (b) In addition, a health facility may do one or more of | 3 | | the following: | 4 | | (1) Identify and record a patient's primary language | 5 | | and dialect on one or more of the following: a patient | 6 | | medical chart, hospital bracelet, bedside notice, or | 7 | | nursing card. | 8 | | (2) Prepare and maintain, as needed, a list of | 9 | | interpreters who have been identified as proficient in sign | 10 | | language according to the Interpreters for the Deaf Act and | 11 | | a list of the languages of the population of the | 12 | | geographical area served by the facility.
| 13 | | (3) Review all standardized written forms, waivers, | 14 | | documents, and
informational materials available to | 15 | | patients on admission to determine which
to translate into | 16 | | languages other than English.
| 17 | | (4) Consider providing its nonbilingual staff with | 18 | | standardized picture and
phrase sheets for use in routine | 19 | | communications with patients who have language
or | 20 | | communication barriers.
| 21 | | (5) Develop community liaison groups to enable the | 22 | | facility and the
limited-English-speaking, | 23 | | non-English-speaking, and deaf communities to insure
the | 24 | | adequacy of the
interpreter services.
| 25 | | (c) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (a) and | 26 | | (b) of this Section, a hospital that services an area where 10% |
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| 1 | | or more of the population speaks a language other than English | 2 | | must have an interpreter who speaks that language on staff | 3 | | during all hours that the hospital is open or have arrangements | 4 | | to make an interpreter available through telephonic, video, or | 5 | | other means. | 6 | | (Source: P.A. 95-667, eff. 10-11-07.)
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