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Know Your Rights
Source: National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
Subject: Language Access
Type: Media Coverage

New York pharmacies agree to translate prescription drug directions

Non-English
speaking New Yorkers can soon look forward to receiving the purpose of their
medication, prescription dosage, and side effect information in Spanish,
Chinese, Italian, Russian and French.

 
 

As part of
an effort to improve services to non-English speaking residents, five major
pharmacies, including Target, Wal-Mart, Costco, Duane Reade and A&P have
agreed to print drug information in five additional languages.Rite Aid and CVS also reached a similar
agreement with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo last year.

We can
thank Make the Road New York, for
these changes. Make the Road is a
nonprofit organization that sent numerous complaints to Cuomo about the issue,
resulting in an investigation on pharmacy practices.Pharmacists must now ensure that business is
done in a way that doesn’t discriminate against non-English speaking customers.

According
to the census, there are over a million New Yorkers who do not speak English
well or at all, reflecting the importance of translation services.With the trend starting in New York, there are plans to expand the
option to other states as well.