Requires hospitals, nursing homes and community health clinics to provide patient documents in large print format, language assistance services and audio recordings

- Hospitals, nursing homes, and community health clinics are required to provide language assistance services;

- Hospitals, nursing homes, and community health clinics are required to provide largeprint format for frequently used forms, such as consent forms, the patient bill of rights, pre-operative and post-operative information and discharge instructions as well as other written materials that are essential to the patient's care;

- The language assistance plan developed by the facility shall include uniform policies and procedures for the provision of services including the documentation for provision of or refusal of such services and the availability of personnel to read written documents to a patient or patient's assistant and respond to questions. Upon request, the conversations may be recorded and such recording made available to the patient;

- The statement regarding patient rights shall include a provision notifying patients of their right to these services and the availability of large-print documents;

- Facilities shall submit to the Commissioner of Health an annual report assessing its compliance with this act;

- The Commissioner shall develop rules and regulations to implement this act;

- Definitions are provided for "patient assistant," "facility," "hospital," and "nursing home;"

- Provides that facilities may provide services and programs for the blind and low vision population above the requirements of this act; Act does not apply to private practices;

- Act taking effect 180 days after it becomes law.

Justification

Subsection 2 of Section 296 of Article 15 of the Executive Law prohibits agents of public accommodation from communication with the public in a way that denies access to people with disabilities. Discrimination of this kind can have a detrimental impact on the provision of health care.

For patients who are blind and visually impaired, health facilities do not commonly provide information in an accessible format and the rights of people with these disabilities in these cases is not well communicated. Thus, blind and visually impaired people undergoing or recovering from medical procedures must rely on others to read sensitive information so that they can follow instructions correctly, a necessity that compounds an already stressful situation and compromises the privacy of the individual in a health care setting.

Written information is currently made accessible to patients who do not read or understand English, and pre- and post-operative instructions, as well as consent forms, are routinely translated into Spanish or other languages as necessary. With modem technology, these documents can easily be made available in large-print or audio formats at a minimal cost.

1 in 400 New Yorkers is visually impaired and the first tenet of the Patient's Bill of Rights in New York mandates that every patient understand those rights. This bill will help make this possible for blind and visually impaired New Yorkers.

This legislation was developed in consultation with the National Federation for the Blind of New York.

Prior legislative history

None.

Fiscal implications

To be determined.

Effective date

This act shall take effect one the one hundred eightieth day after it shall have become a law; provided that effective immediately, the commissioner of health is authorized to promulgate such rules and regulations as may be necessary and proper to implement the provisions of this act.