§ 20-1302. Cultural and Linguistic Health Care Professional Competency Program

   (a) Established. -- There is a Cultural and Linguistic Health Care Professional Competency Program.

(b) Purpose. -- The purpose of the Program is to provide for a voluntary program in which educational classes are offered to health care professionals to teach health care professionals:

   (1) Methods to improve the health care professionals' cultural and linguistic competency to communicate with non-English speaking patients and patients from other cultures who are English speaking;

   (2) Cultural beliefs and practices that may impact patient health care practices and allow health care professionals to incorporate the knowledge of the beliefs and practices in the diagnosis and treatment of patients; and

   (3) Methods to enable health care professionals to increase the health literacy of their patients to improve the patient's ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health care decisions.

HISTORY: 2009, ch. 414; 2012, ch. 671.