Suit: Mandated translation services never offered
Two New York hospitals are facing lawsuits that accuse them of failing to offer non-English-speaking patients translation and interpretation services mandated by federal, state, and city law.
The legal action was recently filed by the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest Inc. on behalf of Make the Road by Walking (MRW), a local nonprofit organization advocating for the rights of low-income Latinos and African-Americans.
The suit was filed against Wyckoff Heights Hospital and Woodhull Hospital, both located in Bushwick, a mostly Hispanic section of northern Brooklyn. The plaintiffs claim that the hospitals have effectively denied equal access residents of the surrounding area by not providing health services in Spanish.
Andrew Friedman, co-director of MRW, says the lack of translation services at the hospitals are symptomatic of a national problem. He notes that Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the New York City Human Rights Law both prohibit discrimination based on race, national origin, or color. Failing to provide adequate translation services is a violation of those laws, according to the lawsuit.
Woodhull Hospital spokesman Stephen Bohlen says the hospital provides extensive translation services and other aid to non-English-speaking patients and family members. The hospital has 450,000 clinic visits and 18,000 inpatient visits per year with a very diverse patient population, so Bohlen says it is inevitable that some problems will occur. But the hospital works hard to provide sufficient translation services, he adds.
The hospital has a volunteer translation pool of 625 staff members who collectively speak 50 languages. The staff also has 24-7 access to a telephone service that provides translations for more than 130 languages.
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