Illinois Administrative Code › Title 77 - PUBLIC HEALTH › Part 940 - LANGUAGE ASSISTANCE SERVICES CODE › Section 940.120 - Language Assistance Services

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 28, July 12, 2024
A health facility shall ensure access to health care
				information and services for limited-English-speaking or non-English-speaking
				residents or patients or deaf residents or patients. To meet this requirement,
				a health facility shall do the following:
a) Adopt and review annually a policy for
			 providing language assistance services to patients or residents with language
			 or communication barriers. The policy shall include procedures for providing,
			 to the extent possible as determined by the facility, the use of an interpreter
			 whenever a language or communication barrier exists, except where the patient
			 or resident, after being informed of the availability of the interpreter
			 service, chooses to use a family member or friend who volunteers to interpret.
			 The procedures shall be designed to maximize efficient use of interpreters and
			 minimize delays in providing interpreters to patients or residents. The
			 procedures shall ensure, to the extent possible as determined by the facility,
			 that interpreters are available, either on the premises or accessible by
			 telephone, 24 hours a day. The facility shall annually transmit to the
			 Department of Public Health a copy of the updated policy and shall include a
			 description of the facility's efforts to ensure adequate and speedy
			 communication between patients or residents with language or communication
			 barriers and staff.
b) Develop, and
			 post in conspicuous locations, notices that advise patients or residents and
			 their families of the availability of interpreters, the procedure for obtaining
			 an interpreter, and the telephone numbers to call for filing complaints
			 concerning interpreter service problems, including, but not limited to, a TTY
			 number for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing. In a hospital, the notices
			 shall be posted, at a minimum, in the emergency room, the admitting area, the
			 facility entrance, and the outpatient area. In a long-term care facility, the
			 notices shall be posted in the facility entrance. Notices shall inform patients
			 or residents that interpreter services are available on request, shall list the
			 languages most commonly encountered at the facility for which interpreter
			 services are available, and shall instruct patients to direct complaints
			 regarding interpreter services to the Department of Public Health, including
			 the telephone numbers to call for that purpose.
c) Notify the facility's employees of the
			 language services available at the facility and train them on how to make these
			 language services available to patients or residents. In addition, a health
			 facility may do one or more of the following:
1) Identify and record a patient's or
			 resident's primary language and dialect on one or more of the following: a
			 patient medical chart, hospital bracelet, bedside notice, or nurse
			 card.
2) Prepare and maintain, as
			 needed, a list of interpreters who have been identified as proficient in sign
			 language according to the Interpreter for the Deaf Licensure Act of 2007 and a
			 list of the languages of the population of the geographical area served by the
			 facility.
3) Review all
			 standardized written forms, waivers, documents, and informational materials
			 available to patients or residents on admission to determine which to translate
			 into languages other than English.
4) Consider providing its nonbilingual staff
			 with standardized picture and phrase sheets for use in routine communications
			 with patients or residents who have language or communication
			 barriers.
5) Develop community
			 liaison groups to enable the facility and the limited-English-speaking,
			 non-English-speaking, and deaf communities to ensure the adequacy of the
			 interpreter services. (Section 15 of the Act)