Source: HRC press release, Associated Press
Washington, DC -- Calling it "first step toward establishing a nationwide set of standards to reduce discrimination and ensure quality hospital-based health care," two LGBT advocacy groups yesterday released a report that rates hospitals on a set of standards of patient care for lesbian, gay, bi, or transgender Americans.
The report was compiled by Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC), the nation’s LGBT civil rights organization, and the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, the nation's largest association of GLBT healthcare professionals and includes ratings for 88 hospitals.
In a statement released along with the report, the two groups said, "The absence of federal protections, inadequate state laws and inconsistent hospital policies often result in discrimination and inadequate health care for GLBT patients and their families. Too many times, a gay man has been unable to comfort his partner, a transgender person has been ridiculed instead of treated, or a lesbian mom has been barred from seeing her child at the hospital."
Called the Healthcare Equality Index, the index is modeled after the HRC's Corporate Equality Index, which rates corporations on policies for gay and lesbian workers. It has tracked a surge in the number of Fortune 500 companies offering benefits to same-sex partners.
Just over half of 88 hospitals included in the survey got top marks.
Some responses to the new survey came from hospital networks. Kaiser Permanente, answering on behalf of 31 hospitals in California and Hawaii, said all met the survey's 10 criteria. They were among 45 hospitals in all with top marks.
University Hospitals of Cleveland, representing 10 Ohio hospitals, said they fully met only two criteria — domestic partner benefits for employees and a patient nondiscrimination policy that includes sexual orientation.
The HRC and the medical association said their goal is to highlight hospitals with high rankings and induce others to abandon inequitable practices.
"By publishing the Healthcare Equality Index, we not only shine a light on the top performing hospitals, but also draw attention to prejudices that GLBT Americans must face during some of their most critical moments," said HRC President Joe Solmonese in a conference call. "With each subsequent edition of the HEI, we will move the health care industry closer to gold standard of national policies that will improve the treatment and prevent discrimination of GLBT Americans and their families."
In one example cited by the HRC, attorney Kenneth Johnson described his struggle to verify his relationship with his partner, James Massey, in 2006 when Massey was rushed unconscious to Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C.
Johnson said he had to travel back to his home in Virginia to fetch legal documents before the hospital allowed him to join in medical decision-making for Massey, who had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died the next day. The two men had registered as domestic partners in California and had an adopted son.
Although the initial survey includes a relatively small number of hospitals, Joel Ginsberg, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, said he was encouraged by response.
"The strong participation we're seeing by hospitals across the country reflects a trend within the healthcare industry of focusing on GLBT patients as a specific patient population with some unique needs," Ginsberg said. "We're encouraged by this because this kind of private, voluntary action is one of the most important ways we're going to be able to reduce some of the health disparities that GLBT people currently experience."
The healthcare index includes recommendations for hospitals, starting with the forms filled out by patients. It recommends that "transgender" be an option for gender and that relationship status include the term "partnered" as well as "single," "married," "divorced" and "widowed."
The survey rates participating hospitals on five areas of policy and practice: patient non-discrimination, hospital visitation, decision making, cultural competency training and employment non-discrimination.
The 2008 Healthcare Equality Index is available online in PDF format: www.hrc.org/hei.
Full article: Human Rights Campaign Foundation, Gay and Lesbian Medical Association Release First-of-Its-Kind Healthcare Equality Index | HRC press release
Gay rights groups launch hospital rating system | Associated Press