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California Bill - AB 1195: Cultural and Linguistic Competency (February 2006)
California Assembly Bill (AB) 1195 was introduced by Assemblyman Joe Coto to ensure that continuing medical education activities, except those focused on research or other non-patient care issues, include curriculums in the subjects of cultural and linguistic competency in the practice of medicine on and after July 1, 2006.
This translates into offering medical education courses must address at least one or a combination of the following:
- Cultural competency through applying linguistic skills, using cultural information to establish therapeutic relationship, or using pertinent cultural data in diagnosis and treatment.
- Linguistic competency, which refers to providing direct communications in the patient's primary language.
- A review or explanation of relevant federal and state/regulations regarding linguistic access.
Linguistic competency is defined as the ability of a physician or surgeon to provide patients who do not speak English or who have limited ability to speak English, direct communication in the patient's primary language.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center requires that all continuing medical education programs, unless exempted by research or non-patient centric content, will 1) incorporate the application of linguistic skills to better communicate with the target population; 2) utilize cultural information to establish therapeutic relationships; 3) incorporate pertinent cultural data in diagnosis and treatment; and 4) consider and apply cultural and ethnic data into the process of clinical care.
To learn more about AB 1195, please click on the following links:
Click here to read California AB1195
Click here to read Legislative Summary
Click here for AB1195 Overview & Resources
Click here for Language Access Resources
