[lg policy] UCSF Medical Center implementd groundbreaking Inclusive Language Policy

[Harold Schiffman]

UCSF Medical Center earns perfect Healthcare Equality Index score for
fourth consecutive year


LGBT Healthcare Equality Index (HEI)

UCSF Medical Center today became the only institution in the United
States to receive a perfect score on the LGBT Healthcare Equality
Index (HEI) for four consecutive years.
The HEI annually invites healthcare facilities nationwide to rate
themselves on recognized criteria for equitable, inclusive care for
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) patients and their
families. The criteria call on healthcare facilities to have LGBT
nondiscrimination policies covering both patients and employees, to
provide equal visitation for same-sex partners, and to offer LGBT
competence training for staff.

Unique among U.S. healthcare facilities, UCSF Medical Center has
met—in fact, exceeded—all of these criteria since the HEI was created
in 2007 by the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT civil rights
organization, and the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.

“We’re enormously proud of our unequalled record,” said Mark Laret,
chief executive officer of UCSF Medical Center. “We want LGBT patients
and their families to know that we are deeply committed to providing
them with knowledgeable, sensitive care and completely equitable and
respectful treatment.”

The 2010 HEI rates 178 healthcare facilities nationwide, 11of which
join UCSF as “top performers,” meeting all criteria for LGBT equity
and inclusion. This year’s HEI report also features a description of
UCSF’s acclaimed LGBT health competence training program, overseen by
UCSF LGBT Resource Center Director Shane Snowdon.“As the HEI report
notes, it’s critical to bring paper policies and practices alive by
providing training on the needs of LGBT patients and their families,”
Snowdon said. “Our training program is the most extensive in the
country—we’re regularly consulted by other healthcare facilities who
want to join us in offering truly equal and inclusive care.”

UCSF’s LGBT policies, practices, and training long predate the HEI. In
2004, for example, the Medical Center implemented a groundbreaking
Inclusive Language Policy that was recently added to the prestigious
federal Health Care Innovations Exchange of the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality.  The only LGBT-related resource featured in the
program, the policy calls for LGBT-inclusive language in written and
verbal patient communications. Cindy Lima, an executive director of
the Medical Center and lead developer of the policy, noted, “We want
to make sure our staff know how to relate to LGBT patients—and their
families—comfortably and knowledgeably.”

UCSF Medical Center has also long provided equal visitation rights for
patients’ same-sex partners. These rights were the focus of an April
memorandum from President Barack Obama to the U.S. Secretary of Health
and Human Services that will ultimately require all federally funded
health healthcare facilities to allow patients to designate the
visitors of their choice.  “We at UCSF were delighted to see our
longtime practice ‘go national,’” said Snowdon. “But it’s tragic to
think how many same-sex couples around the country have been prevented
from seeing each other in their hour of need.”

The 2010 HEI report is dedicated to one such couple: as Lisa Pond’s
life slipped away in a hospital emergency room, her partner and their
children were kept from her. “Experiences like theirs,” Snowdon
observed, “remind us how crucial it is that UCSF and other healthcare
facilities regularly ask themselves how they’re treating LGBT patients
and their families.” UCSF is a leading university dedicated to
promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research,
graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions,
and excellence in patient care.

http://news.ucsf.edu/releases/ucsf-medical-center-earns-perfect-healthcare-equality-index-score-for-fourt/

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