Nearly 350 patients and community members attended Asian Health Services’ General Meeting on Wednesday morning, July 31st at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center in Oakland, California. The General Meeting offered a unique opportunity for Asian Health Services’ diverse group of patients to come together and discuss relevant issues. This year’s General Meeting focused on educating patients on the new health care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), and how this new law will impact them and their families. It also gave patients an opportunity to ask questions and have their concerns heard by AHS staff.
Asian Health Services’ staff worked tirelessly to ensure that all patients have access to this information. The meeting offered simultaneous interpretation to each patient over individual headsets in ten different languages: Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Korean, Khmer, Tagalog, Burmese, Mongolian, Mien and Karen. The meeting included a keynote presentation by Dr. Tung Nguyen, Commissioner of the White House’s Initiative on Asian and Pacific Islanders. Patients were then provided with lunch and granted tours of AHS’s new 835 Clinic.