CLAS Standards

637 Words3 Pages
1) What is the purpose of the CLAS standards and why are they relevant to health care today. The purpose of the CLAS standards is to implement a consistent, reliable and fair set of services to populations that require non traditional cultural and linguistic needs. These populations are outside of the “mainstream” of the health care system, which means that traditional resources are not dedicated to their attention in a way that ensures there are equitable appropriations of facilities, services and experts to aid these communities. "With the enhancement initiative, the National CLAS Standards will continue into the next decade as the cornerstone for advancing health equity through culturally and linguistically appropriate services." (Serrano,2003)…show more content…
CLAS is vital for Healthcare employers because they need to be aware of the culture of their patients and be mindful of their own culture in order to facilitate communication despite of language barriers. Every healthcare employee would need to to follow the CLAS system and be cultural mindful from initial point of contact to ensure the patient is comfortable and does not feel they are misunderstood because they come from a different background. It is vital that there is a systematic problem solving approach to bringing down the inequities that exist within the healthcare system, and the CLAS strategy is very effective in helping to eliminate these inequities by setting up protocols for dealing with those that have different needs. Healthcare has been established as a right, so there is a responsibility of the Healthcare community to address the needs and concerns of others who have different
Open Document