Many Atlanta area hospitals not adequately serving non-English speakers

Georgia Watch:

Many Georgia hospitals aren’t doing enough to ensure accessibility for non-English speakers, according to a report (pdf) released this week by Georgia Watch’s Hospital Accountability Project. Most hospitals throughout the state are required to follow basic language accessibility regulations set forth by Title V1 of the Civil Rights Act, the Affordable Care Act, and the Indigent Care Trust Fund.

But too many are doing the bare minimum to lower barriers for those with limited English proficiency, if anything at all. In a recent survey of more than 90 Georgia hospital websites, only about one-sixth had information on available financial aid programs in a language other than English and Spanish. In diverse communities, such as DeKalb and Gwinnett counties, many languages are common, such as Chinese, Vietnamese and Burmese.