(CLAS) Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services Standards

Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services Standards (CLAS)
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CLAS Standards
Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in healthcare renders to guidance standards that were incorporated in 2013 by the Minority of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services in the United States. The measures aim at improving the quality of services and eliminate healthcare inequalities by facilitating effective, equitable, respectful and understandable quality care. According to CLAS, healthcare services should be responsive and respectful to different cultural health beliefs and practices and should be offered with preferred languages that favor both parties; the healthcare provider and the patient. The standards also address leadership, employees and continuous improvement through accountability and health literacy. Managers typically utilize their leadership positions to educate their employees on the importance of CLAS standards not only for the organization but also for the community.
Managers play an essential role in shaping employees’ well-Being and overall work performance. Leaders have the responsibility of establishing a supportive work environment that promotes the client and employee well-being. Client and employee well-being is an important concept that should be prioritized in healthcare where employee health behaviors depict a great connection with the healthcare services. The managers are responsible for the employee well-being because they have the power to initiate and uphold a healthy workplace (Sorensen et al., 2017). They also have the opportunity to lead by example and be the agents of environmental change by creating suitable conditions and proper allocation of resources. Managers can always utilize their leadership skills to incorporate culturally competent services in an organization by encouraging healthy behaviors, educating employees on cultural beliefs and dynamics, and standard language in the organization. Cultural awareness facilitates healthy choices and promotes healthy habits when dealing with clients of different origin.
Cultural competence is the ability of an organization and the employees to deliver excellent services that meet the cultural, social, and linguistic needs of the society (Soloviova et al., 2019). A cultural competent work environment has employees who possess skills, attitude and knowledge of the clients from distinct cultural and linguistic backgrounds (Sorensen et al., 2017). Some cultural barriers in the healthcare setting may negatively impact the health outcome of the services and lead to expensive costs on healthcare systems. For instance, language barriers may have devastating effects on the client, such as misinterpretation of words. An example is the story of a teenager who collapsed during a high school sports event. The student was in the company of his girlfriend who spoke little English, and when asked what was wrong, she kept mentioning ‘intoxicado’. Her boyfriend was then rushed to the hospital, and when given treatment for drug abuse, he went to a 48-hour coma. The healthcare providers thought that the patient was a victim of intoxication, and stomach ache, which is a sign of brain aneurysm. Later, the healthcare faced a lawsuit of about $71 million for malpractice (Sorensen et al., 2017). The scenario indicates the need to promote cultural competency and establish a standard linguistic and cultural practice to improve the quality of healthcare services and reduce costs incurred on lawsuits.
Cultural competencies benefit the organization, the community, patients and create a basis for an excellent nurse-client relationship. A culturally competent health organization has increased respect and teamwork among employees, improved quality of services, quality billing and customer service, increased societal participation and improved health outcomes (Soloviova et al., 2019). The competences help the organization in planning seminars and forums to educate patients on new medical delivery services, and their status. The process can be carried out effectively due to reduced language barriers, eliminated cultural differences and health illiteracy gap. The health competencies overcome disparities such as cultural beliefs, conscious and unconscious clinical bias, low health literacy and differences in access to quality care.
A healthcare organization with an excellent cultural understanding of their clients will have enhanced and efficient patient services, increased market share for the organization, decreased barriers that hinder progress and increased perspectives and ideas that can be incorporated in decision making. Also, the patients will have increased access to quality care, reduced medical errors, enhanced medical and treatment visits and an improved method of collecting patient data. The organization will also benefit from the increased trust in the society which paves the way for community inclusion in decision making and evidence-based research. Organizations should embrace cultural competence and seek methods of improving the concept within their organizations because we love in a diverse society (Soloviova et al., 2019). The diversity ranges from race, sexuality, social classes, age, religion, abilities and social beliefs which should be treated equally with respect.
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