Following lawsuit, Providence commits to improved care for Deaf patients

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

EVERETT — Providence will improve care for Deaf patients in Snohomish County under a settlement agreement announced Friday.

In 2022, three Deaf patients sued Providence after struggling to communicate with staff at multiple care locations. The patients claimed the state’s largest health care provider failed to properly train staff, provide interpreters or implement policies in line with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Providence reached an agreement in U.S. District Court in Seattle last month with the Good Law Clinic and Disability Rights Advocates, the nonprofit law firm representing the patients. Under the terms of the agreement, Providence will hire a Deaf access consultant, improve in-person interpretation services, review virtual interpretation services and update staff training.

(Deaf with a capital D signifies a specific group of people who share a culture and language, American Sign Language, whereas the lowercase word indicates a person with hearing loss, according to the National Association of the Deaf.)

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/following-lawsuit-providence-commits-to-improved-care-for-deaf-patients/

[SWBTATTReg]

1. GOOD!! As a since birth severe hearing loss person, hospitals are the worse spot for me, especially when the

nurses and/or other staff come in, at night, mouth something to me (in the dark, I can't read their lips nor do I have my hearing aids in at night, so I can't hear them). I have made them (hospital staff) aware of this, and to put a sign on the door that I am hard of hearing! They do this now, so it's a relief to me.

One point, these people aren't doing this deliberately, they just don't know that you're hard of hearing, can't see the hearing aids etc.

As one that's been hard of hearing since birth, it's been a long long trip w/ society still learning on how to deal w/ the hard of hearing.

At least where I go/when I go out, people have learned to face me when they are talking (I can read their lips), speak loudly too, it helps (and make sure that I have my hearing aids in, sometimes, when its so noisy, I shut them off or take the aids out).

I've had people get mad at me for they don't realize when they're talking to me (and my back is facing them), I don't even know they're talking to me.

Have a little patience. You may have to repeat sometime 10 times to me, especially on the phone (and I can't read lips on most phones, they're not video). And if you show patience and stuff, I do really appreciate it tremendously. And one other point, they (the doctors) didn't catch on to my deafness (they thought I was mentally challenged instead, even though my Mom told them 'NO, he just doesn't hear you', the doctors didn't accept this). They finally did accept/realize my deafness when I was 9 (NINE) years old. As you can imagine, I had to go to speech therapy for 4 years to just relearn the English language, learn lip reading, etc.