Bill Text: IL SB2929 | 2013-2014 | 98th General Assembly | Engrossed

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Bill Title: Amends the Language Assistance Services Act. Provides that a hospital that services an area where a language other than English is spoken by 10% or more of the service area's population must have a translator who speaks that language on staff during all hours that the hospital is open.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Failed) 2015-01-13 - Session Sine Die [SB2929 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2013-SB2929-Engrossed.html

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AN ACT concerning health facilities.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Language Assistance Services Act is amended
by changing Section 15 as follows:
(210 ILCS 87/15)
Sec. 15. Language assistance services.
(a) To insure access to health care information and
services for limited-English-speaking or non-English-speaking
residents and deaf residents, a health facility must do the
following:
(1) Adopt and review annually a policy for providing
language assistance services to patients 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, 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. The procedures shall insure, to the extent

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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 insure adequate and speedy
communication between patients with language or
communication barriers and staff.
(2) Develop, and post in conspicuous locations,
notices that advise patients 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. The notices shall be posted,
at a minimum, in the emergency room, the admitting area,
the facility entrance, and the outpatient area. Notices
shall inform patients 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.
(3) Notify the facility's employees of the language
services available at the facility and train them on how to

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make those language services available to patients.
(b) In addition, a health facility may do one or more of
the following:
(1) Identify and record a patient's primary language
and dialect on one or more of the following: a patient
medical chart, hospital bracelet, bedside notice, or
nursing card.
(2) Prepare and maintain, as needed, a list of
interpreters who have been identified as proficient in sign
language according to the Interpreters for the Deaf Act 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 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 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 insure the
adequacy of the interpreter services.
(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (a) and
(b) of this Section, a hospital that services an area where 10%

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or more of the population speaks a language other than English
must have an interpreter who speaks that language on staff
during all hours that the hospital is open or have arrangements
to make an interpreter available through telephonic, video, or
other means.
(Source: P.A. 95-667, eff. 10-11-07.)