Demanding and Winning Translation Services at Hospitals and Pharmacies
For many years, New York's growing population of Limited English Proficient residents has consistently reported an inability to effectively communicate with their doctors and pharmacists. Language barriers compromise people's access to quality healthcare and can result in wrong diagnoses and treatments. Since 2002, Make the Road New York has worked to end this systematic discrimination by ensuring both hospitals and pharmacies provide adequate translation and interpretation for all patients who need them.

Working with both the Attorney General’s office and five New York City hospitals, we negotiated agreements that will dramatically improve healthcare for over 1.5 million Limited English Proficient residents in New York City. We then built on that success by working in coalition at the state level – all New York hospitals are now mandated to provide skilled translators, appoint language access coordinators, and identify a patient's primary language on all medical records.

In 2006, MRNY worked with the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and the New York Immigration Coalition to file a landmark civil rights complaint against several major New York pharmacy chains, alleging a widespread failure to comply with city, state and federal laws requiring translation and interpretation services.

Recently, the New York State Attorney General responded to our complaint and announced settlement agreements with New York State's seven largest pharmacy chains. CVS, Rite Aid, Wal-Mart, Duane Reade, Pathmark, Target, and Costco have all signed comprehensive corrective action agreements and will start providing customers throughout the state with spoken and written language services in Chinese, French, Italian, Russian, Polish, and Spanish.

Millions of New Yorkers no longer face fear, confusion or discrimination when they go to the hospital or pharmacy. Also, costly and often life-threatening medical mistakes due to doctor/patient miscommunication will be substantially reduced.

Confronting a Health Crisis: Asthma
With groups from around the city, we spearheaded the passage of The Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act in 2004, the strongest lead poisoning legislation in the country. Building on that victory, we are now confronting the asthma epidemic in the Bushwick community. Bushwick has the highest rate of child hospitalization for asthma in Brooklyn, and four times the citywide average rate. Exposure to dust, mold, mildew, rodent infestation, bedbugs, cockroaches, and pesticides is exacerbated by poor housing conditions rampant in Bushwick.

Make the Road New York convened the first citywide collaborative in New York City to address indoor asthma allergens and the housing code. The initiative is working with the City Council to amend the city’s housing code to more effectively mitigate indoor asthma triggers, and with the New York State Taskforce on Mold to confront similar issues at the state level.