The Joint Commission has released a field guide on how to improve communication with and provide culturally competent, patient- and family-centered care to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender patients and health care consumers. This field guide is a followup report to the Joint Commission’s Roadmap for Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient- and Family-Centered Care and provides additional details specifically for the LGBT population.
The field guide includes chapters on Leadership; Provision of Care, Treatment, and Services; Workforce; Data Collection and Use; and Patient, Family, and Community Engagement and has useful checklists and extensive citations to resources and references.
Given the Joint Commission standard prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and on gender identity and expression, this field guide will be an invaluable resource to all health care organizations.
Ignatius Bau 