Healthcare Compliance Perspective:
Residents/patients have the right to be fully informed regarding their care, and communicated with in an understandable language.
A $121,000 settlement agreement under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was reached with a regional medical center that is a wholly-owned, indirect subsidiary of a corporation located in Fredericksburg. The case involves a suit alleging that the hospital failed to furnish sign language interpreter services to an individual who is deaf during the provision of medical services to her and her mother.
The investigation began with a complaint alleging that during nine hospitalizations, including one involving end of life events, the medical center failed to furnish sign language interpreter services for numerous consequential and complex interactions with the daughter of a gravely ill woman who was hospitalized at the center; and, at times, relied upon family members and friends to facilitate communication. Additionally, the same individual alleges that she made three visits to the center’s Emergency Department as a patient and during those visits, the center failed to furnish her with a sign language interpreter. As a result, the deaf individual alleges that she often did not understand the care and medical decisions being considered for her mother’s or her own care.
Under the settlement, the medical center will pay a total of $121,000 to the aggrieved individuals, including to the individual who is deaf and to her family members and friends for associational discrimination. The settlement agreement also requires that the medical center take remedial steps to bring itself into compliance with the ADA. This requirement includes the appointment of an ADA Administrator who is familiar with the ADA’s prerequisites of providing ADA training to its staff, entering into contracts with sign language interpreting service providers and adopting specific policies and procedures to ensure that auxiliary aids and services are provided promptly to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.
