| Culturally Competent Care |
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1.
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Health care organizations should ensure that
patients/consumers receive from all staff members effective,
understandable, and respectful care that is provided in a manner
compatible with their cultural health beliefs and practices and
preferred language.
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2.
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Health care organizations should implement
strategies to recruit, retain, and promote at all levels of the
organization a diverse staff and leadership that are representative of
the demographic characteristics of the service area.
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3.
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Health care organizations should ensure that staff at all
levels and across all disciplines receive ongoing education and
training in culturally and linguistically appropriate service delivery.
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Language Access Services
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4.
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Health care organizations must offer and provide language
assistance services, including bilingual staff and interpreter
services, at no cost to each patient/consumer with limited English
proficiency at all points of contact, in a timely manner during all
hours of operation.
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5.
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Health care organizations must provide to
patients/consumers in their preferred language both verbal offers and
written notices informing them of their right to receive language
assistance services.
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6.
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Health
care organizations must assure the competence of language assistance
provided to limited English proficient patients/consumers by
interpreters and bilingual staff. Family and friends should not be used
to provide interpretation services (except on request by the patient/
consumer).
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7.
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Health care organizations must make available easily
understood patient-related materials and post signage in the languages
of the commonly encountered groups and/or groups represented in the
service area. |
| Organizational
Supports for Cultural Competence |
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8.
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Health care organizations should develop, implement, and
promote a written strategic plan that outlines clear goals, policies,
operational plans, and management accountability/oversight mechanisms
to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services.
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9.
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Health care organizations should conduct initial and
ongoing organizational self-assessments of CLAS-related activities and
are encouraged to integrate cultural and linguistic competence-related
measures into their internal audits, performance improvement programs,
patient satisfaction assessments, and outcomes-based evaluations.
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10.
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Health care organizations should ensure that data on the
individual patient's/consumer's race, ethnicity, and spoken and written
language are collected in health records, integrated into the
organization's management information systems, and periodically
updated.
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11.
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Health care organizations should maintain a current
demographic, cultural, and epidemiological profile of the community as
well as a needs assessment to accurately plan for and implement
services that respond to the cultural and linguistic characteristics of
the service area.
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12.
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Health care organizations should develop participatory,
collaborative partnerships with communities and utilize a variety of
formal and informal mechanisms to facilitate community and
patient/consumer involvement in designing and implementing CLAS related
activities.
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13.
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Health care organizations should ensure that conflict and
grievance resolution processes are culturally and linguistically
sensitive and capable of identifying, preventing, and resolving
cross-cultural conflicts or complaints by patients/consumers.
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14.
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Health care organizations are encouraged to regularly make
available to the public information about their progress and successful
innovations in implementing the CLAS standards and to provide public
notice in their communities about the availability of this information.
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