- January 11, 2023
- Alerts
Cultural Training and EMR Requirements for NJ Hospitals and Laboratories
Cultural Competency Requirements Applicable to Hospital and Laboratories.
Beginning January 18, 2023, New Jersey hospitals and clinical laboratories must demonstrate compliance with cultural competency requirements recently issued by the New Jersey Department of Health (“DOH”) by enacting the following:
If hospitals or laboratories fail to comply with these EMR requirements, the DOH may impose corrective actions, fines, and penalties. Furthermore, a vendor of electronic medical records or laboratory information management systems that fails to comply may face civil penalties of up to $1,000 for each day during which the vendor's system is out of compliance.
Additional Laboratory Specific Cultural Competency Requirements.
In addition to the requirements described above, each clinical laboratory must also:
All requirements go into effect January 18, 2023, with the exception of sexual orientation and gender identity terms for clinical laboratories, which have until July 18, 2023 to implement correct terminology.
Beginning January 18, 2023, New Jersey hospitals and clinical laboratories must demonstrate compliance with cultural competency requirements recently issued by the New Jersey Department of Health (“DOH”) by enacting the following:
- An evidence-based cultural competency training program for all employees who have direct contact with patients or are responsible for collecting demographic information from such patients;
- Collection of identity, sexual orientation, and racial and ethnic information for patients;
- Configuration of electronic medical records (“EMR”) in a manner that prevents an authorized user from saving or storing a patient’s demographic information unless a selection of a patient’s gender identity, sexual orientation, and racial and ethnic information is recorded.
If hospitals or laboratories fail to comply with these EMR requirements, the DOH may impose corrective actions, fines, and penalties. Furthermore, a vendor of electronic medical records or laboratory information management systems that fails to comply may face civil penalties of up to $1,000 for each day during which the vendor's system is out of compliance.
Additional Laboratory Specific Cultural Competency Requirements.
In addition to the requirements described above, each clinical laboratory must also:
- Electronically record the race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity of each patient who presents with a non-electronic order for testing at a clinical laboratory patient service center;
- Modify any non-electronic specimen collection and analysis requisition form to contain a section for manual entry of a patient’s race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity;
- Record or report race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity information using a program that is compatible with the State's disease surveillance reporting system, or using another program designated by DOH.
All requirements go into effect January 18, 2023, with the exception of sexual orientation and gender identity terms for clinical laboratories, which have until July 18, 2023 to implement correct terminology.