SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Aug. 31, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — University of Utah Health announced its “LGBTQ Health Care Equality Top Performer” designation from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation Monday.
The designation was awarded in the 13th edition of HRC’s Healthcare Equality Index, said a news release from U of U Health. A record 765 health care facilities actively participated in the HEI 2020 survey. Of those included in the HEI, 193 earned an “LGBTQ Health Care Equality Top Performer” designation.
“Being ranked by the Human Rights Campaign as a 2020 LGBTQ Healthcare Equality Top Performer is a tremendous achievement for our institution,” said José E. Rodríguez, M.D., F.A.A.F.P., Associate V.P. for Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at University of Utah Health.
“And most important is the message it sends to our patients and our community that we are committed to equity and inclusion in order to provide all a welcoming and safe environment to receive care. This is the first step in our journey to become a leader in this area and to be a model example for LGBTQ inclusive health care.”
Cori Agarwal, M.D,. Medical Director and Plastic Surgeon of the Transgender Health Program at U of U Health discussed the significance of the HRC designation to the program’s patients, and said: “Coming out to a provider can be an intimidating process. Our providers and staff are prepared to have these sensitive conversations with patients. Considering our patient’s sexual orientation and gender identity is essential in providing whole-person care.”
She added: “Our providers and staff are trained in best practices and to ask patients about their pronouns and chosen name. Providing patients with a safe environment to access care is critical to ensuring the best health outcomes. Our teams promote safe spaces for patients where they can talk about their identities. We let our patients tell us about their gender journey and how our clinical teams can best help them meet their goals of affirming their gender.”
In the 2020 report, 495 facilities earned HRC’s “LGBTQ Health Care Equality Leader” designation, receiving the maximum score in each section and earning an overall score of 100. Another 193 facilities earned the “Top Performer” designation for scoring from 80 to 95 points. With 90% of participating facilities scoring 80 points or more, health care facilities are demonstrating concretely that they are going beyond the basics when it comes to adopting policies and practices in LGBTQ care, the news release said.
The progress reflected in the 2020 HEI includes:
- 92% of participants met the HEI’s training requirements, completing more than 150,000 hours of staff training in LGBTQ patient-centered care.
- 99% of HEI participants documented that they include both “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in their patient non-discrimination policy.
- 99% of HEI participants documented that they include both “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in their employment nondiscrimination policy.
- 53% of HEI participants indicated that their facility has a policy or policies that specifically outline procedures and practices aimed at eliminating bias and insensitivity, and ensuring appropriate, welcoming interactions with transgender patients.
- After many years of trailing their corporate counterparts in the provision of transgender-inclusive health care benefits for employees, HEI participating healthcare facilities are nearly on par with the HRC Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index participants as 80% have at least one health care plan that offered this benefit. The latest CEI noted 85% of participants having such benefits.
In addition to active survey participants, the HRC Foundation proactively researched the key policies at over 1,000 non-participating hospitals, the news release said. The adoption rate at these researched hospitals stands in stark contrast to the near-perfect adoption by active participants. “Among the researched hospitals in which we were able to find or obtain enumerated patient non-discrimination policies, only 67% have policies that include both ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity,’ and only 63% were found to have an LGBTQ-inclusive employment non-discrimination policy,” the news release said. “The equal visitation policy, at 93%, is the only one that comes close to matching the rate of the participating facilities.”
