The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, and the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, the nation's largest association of LGBT healthcare professionals, today released the third annual Healthcare Equality Index (HEI), a national report that sets benchmarks and highlights best practices in healthcare facility policies for LGBT Americans. The release coincides with the annual observance of National Hospital Week. “While many facilities are leading the way in fairness for LGBT patients and their families, on the whole, the healthcare industry is failing to adequately address the needs of our community,” said Human Rights Campaign Foundation President Joe Solmonese. “But tools like the HEI can turn this trend around. By helping to remove barriers and create truly welcoming healthcare environments, we can build a stronger, healthier community.”
Check out some key findings of the HEI after the jump.
Visitation Policies. The HEI survey has identified model visitation policies that are explicitly inclusive of the LGBT community. These model policies will set the standard for credit on these questions in the future.
Advance Healthcare Directives. All HEI-participating facilities have compliance policies requiring the honoring of legally-valid advance healthcare directives. Unfortunately, LGBT individuals come forward with tragic stories of hospitals failing to recognize these directives, reflecting a disconnect between the existence of written policies and the actual implementation of these policies on the part of all personnel. Future HEI surveys will focus on staff training related to advance healthcare directives as a means to eliminating this disconnect.
Cultural Competency Training. Seventy-two percent of participating facilities provide cultural competency training addressing sexual orientation and healthcare issues relevant to lesbian, gay and bisexual community. Seventy-one percent of participating facilities provide cultural competency training addressing gender identity and healthcare issues relevant to transgender community.
Employment Non-Discrimination Policies. Ninety-eight percent of the participating facilities bar employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, while only 63 percent of those policies include “gender identity or expression” or “gender identity.”
