The Human Rights Campaign has released its fourth annual Healthcare Equality Index, reporting on the status of policies and practices in health care facilities related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender patients and families. The Index asks responding facilities to score themselves on four areas: patient non-discrimination policies, visitation policies, cultural competency training on LGBT health issues for facility staff, and employment non-discrimination policies for facility staff.
87 surveys were completed for this year’s Index, representing 375 health care facilities (health systems, hospitals, community health clinics, health departments) from 29 states and the District of Columbia. 21 of the 87 respondents (representing 124 facilities) are recognized as Leaders in LGBT Healthcare Equality for meeting all four of the scored criteria. However, more than 40% of the respondents still do not include transgender patients in their non-discrimination policies and nearly half do not provide cultural competency training on LGBT health issues for their staff.
Additional information and resources are available from the Human Rights Campaign website.
Ignatius Bau 