LGBT Healthcare Equality Slowly Improving Among U.S. Hospitals

By Jaimie Oh -

 A new analysis of healthcare equality by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation found that the vast majority of U.S. healthcare facilities don't have fully inclusive policies toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, but that is slowly changing, according to an HRC news release.

Kaiser Permanente, for example, is the first large health network to have a fully inclusive non-discrimination policy for LGBT people. They are also the first health network to achieve Top Performer status in the HRC Foundation's Healthcare Equality Index.

The HEI 2010 independently reviewed a representative sample of 200 of the largest healthcare facilities nationwide. The report found that in all 50 states – and even in historically LGBT-friendly cities like San Francisco and New York – there are facilities that do not fully protect LGBT people from healthcare discrimination. Ninety-three percent of healthcare facilities included in the study do not have fully inclusive policies toward LGBT people, and 42 percent don't include "sexual orientation" in their Patients' Bill of Rights/non-discrimination policy.

The HEI 2010 also includes data from 178 facilities across the country that voluntarily provided information on patient non-discrimination, visitation, cultural competency training and employment non-discrimination. Of the 178 facilities nationwide, 11 individual facilities and one network of 36 hospitals received perfect ratings, and many have made advances over the last three years since the HEI began.

Read the HRC news release about the HRC Foundation's Healthcare Equality Index.