U.S. Attorney’s Office Obtains ADA Settlement with Saginaw Hospital

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan has reached a settlement with a Saginaw hospital to ensure effective communication with individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced Tuesday. The agreement under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) resolves a complaint filed with the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleging that HealthSource Saginaw failed to provide a sign language interpreter to a deaf patient at one of its outpatient clinics. HealthSource Saginaw fully cooperated with the investigation into this matter.

The settlement stemmed from a complaint submitted by a mother in Flint who alleged that HealthSource Saginaw violated the ADA by failing to provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services, including sign language interpreter services, to her teenage son, who is deaf, while he received outpatient treatment at the Saginaw hospital. According to the complaint, the minor was provided with an interpreter while receiving inpatient services at the hospital, but HealthSource Saginaw refused to provide him with an interpreter for follow-up outpatient treatment.

The ADA prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities by health care providers. To ensure that people with disabilities have equal access to health care services, medical providers are obligated to provide effective communication for patients and companions who are deaf or hard of hearing. This assistance may include providing sign language interpreters to ensure that patients who are deaf are able to communicate with their health care providers or providing other auxiliary aids or services that are appropriate under the circumstances at no cost to the patient. The appropriate aid or service depends on a variety of factors, including the nature, length, and importance of the communication; the context of the communication; the communication skills and knowledge of the individual who is deaf or hard of hearing; and the individual’s stated need for a particular type of auxiliary aid or service.

The settlement agreement requires HealthSource Saginaw to adopt specific policies and procedures to ensure that auxiliary aids and services are promptly provided to patients or companions who are deaf or hard of hearing, to provide training to hospital staff on the new policies and procedures and the overall requirements of the ADA; and to appoint an ADA coordinator at the hospital to ensure access to appropriate auxiliary aids and services.

“While this settlement demonstrates HealthSource Saginaw’s commitment to provide effective communication to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, this issue is much bigger than one hospital or one medical provider. More than 25 years after the enactment of the ADA, too many medical providers still fail to fulfill their obligations to provide effective communication to patients and their companions who are deaf. We will continue our enforcement efforts to raise awareness and to ensure that the promise of the ADA is a reality for all Americans,” said U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade.

In the past year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has resolved several cases involving equal access to health care for individuals with disabilities. These cases include doctors and medical offices that have failed to provide sign language interpreters to patients who are deaf and medical offices that have failed to make their procedures accessible for patients who use wheelchairs. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is continuing to investigate a number of other hospitals and medical offices to ensure that they are providing physical access to medical care for people with mobility disabilities, and effective communication for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, as part of the Department of Justice’s Barrier Free Healthcare Initiative.

Accessology, a national consulting firm on accessibility assists private and public entities in their compliance under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It is time for compliance, learn more http://www.accessology.com.

Steps towards compliance for an ADA Transition Plan

“The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is more than 25 years old now. So why, all of a sudden, is there so much pressure to have a current ADA Transition Plan?” asks ADA expert Kristi J. Avalos in the April edition of the APWA Reporter.

APWA Reporter Kristi Avalos article

Avalos is the CEO and President of Accessology Too, LLC., a national consulting firm which assists municipalities in the development of their ADA Transition Plans. She says that although the plans are a federal requirement, there are still many entities who have not developed one. Avalos knows this well. She has been warning government officials in various cities and counties that if they do not conduct a comprehensive analysis of their ADA compliance, they could be subject to a Department of Justice (DOJ) review. According to Avalos, settlements are posted by the DOJ on a regular basis.

Dubbed Project Civil Access (PCA) the US Department of Justice has beefed up their efforts to ensure that, in addition to the private sector, states, counties, cities, towns, and villages also comply with the ADA. To enforce the 25-year-old regulation, the DOJ is conducting regular reviews across the country leaving no municipality without risk.

According to Avalos, “Compliance review sites are chosen based upon the desire of the DOJ to visit every state, the population of the site, and, in some cases, its proximity to a university or tourist attraction.”

“The majority of the compliance reviews occurred in small cities and towns because they represent the most common form of local government,” she stated.

What is the ADA?

A search of the PCA website reveals that the Department of Justice has increased its litigation over the past few years substantially against Title II entities. Settlements reached by the DOJ with the various entities have increased 50% since 2012 and 36% since 2013.

By July of 2015, the DOJ had reached over 217 Settlement Agreements since the PCA initiative began in 1991. A majority of the compliance reviews occurred in small cities and towns. In 2014, although no settlement cases were listed by the PCA, in September of 2015, 14 cases involving the ADA were already settled with the Department of Justice.

Private litigation is also on the increase and as Avalos explains, it’s because the requirement was passed 26 years ago, “The disability community celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the signing of the ADA by filing about 600 cases nationwide. The 20th Anniversary almost 1,400 cases were filed. This year is the 25th Anniversary and we expect landmark litigation. This can only be ignored for so long.”

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WHAT IS AN ADA TRANSITION PLAN:

According to Avalos, an ADA Transition Plan is a document required by the Department of Justice that includes the following components:

1. A list of physical barriers that limit accessibility to services/programs.
2. A detailed outline of the methods proposed to address the barriers.
3. A schedule for achieving compliance.
4. The name of the official responsible for the plan’s implementation (likely
department level).

“A Transition Plan isn’t just a sidewalk and curb ramp inventory, although the inventory is necessary to the plan,” Avalos states in the article. She suggests that the first thing an entity should do is to assign an ADA Coordinator. In addition, Avalos recommends the following steps towards ADA Compliance:

Steps towards ADA Compliance

An ADA Transition Plan is a living document. It’s an accessibility Master Plan and needs to be treated like any other Master Plan. It should be updated regularly and, initially, include a full evaluation of everything offered by the entity, including a complete sidewalk, curb ramp and intersection evaluation. But it’s so much more.

An inventory has to be done of each facility and park owned, operated or leased by the agency as well as all programs, policies, service and activities. This includes hiring and firing practices, job descriptions, emergency planning procedures, parks and rec programs, and the list goes on. Remember that sidewalks and curb ramps are also “programs” offered by most public entities. Without the last three elements, the Transition Plan would just be an inventory. The necessary documentation of how the issues will be resolved, when the issues will be resolved and who is responsible are critical to the overall plan and that is what the DOJ will be looking for if they call and ask for your plan.

Kristi Avalos president/CEO, Accessology Too, Inc.

Read the full article by Kristi Avalos here.

Accessology conducts free ADA roundtable discussion events to educate everyone in an agency about requirements for an ADA Plan. Contact Accessology for more information about the development of your comprehensive ADA Transition Plan or to schedule your free ADA roundtable event! http://www.accessology.com