Health care
organizations must make available easily understood patient-related materials
and post signage in the language of the commonly encountered groups and/or
groups represented in the services area.
In Standard 5, we stressed the importance of ensuring
patients understand their right to language services. This week, we advise health care
professionals to ensure these services are indeed available. Standard 7 states patient-related materials
must be readily available in patients’ preferred languages. Moreover, facility signs should be presented
in English and commonly encountered languages.
According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
important patient-related materials include “applications, consent forms, and
medical or treatment instructions.”
Moreover, the department identifies commonly encountered languages as
“languages used by a significant number or percentage of the population in the
service area.”
In addition to providing translated patient-related
materials, health care professionals should also consider the literacy levels
of the populations. It is also important
to take careful precision when translating technical and medical terms into the
target languages.
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