The Human Rights Campaign Foundation named Children's an “LGBTQ Health Care Equality Leader” in the foundation's Healthcare Equality Index 2019.
The honor is for promoting equitable and inclusive care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer patients and their families. The foundation assesses participants on four criteria, for which Children's earned a perfect 100 percent score:
- non-discrimination and staff training
- patient services and support
- employee benefits and policies
- patient and community engagement
Strengths cited include:
Patients and visitors
- working in close partnership with Washington University School of Medicine partners to provide an LGBTQ+ friendly health care provider directory
- an electronic medical records system that captures patient’s sexual orientation and gender identity data like preferred name, pronouns, and organ inventory
- gender-inclusive policies, including bed placement
Employees
- offering trans-inclusive benefits to all employees, including gender dysphoria surgical coverage enhancement (People who have gender dysphoria feel strongly that their gender does not match their biology.)
- employee engagement survey including a self-identified question on LGBTQ+ status
- employees trained in sexual orientation and gender identity data collection and LGBTQ+ health care best practices
- patient access staff trained on collecting sexual orientation and gender identity information
- a BJC connection group called SPECTRA open to all
LGBTQ employees and allies
“The health care facilities that participate in HRC’s Healthcare Equality Index are making clear that they stand on the side of fairness and are committed to providing inclusive care to their LGBTQ patients,” said HRC President Alphonso David. “We commend all of the HEI participants for their commitment to providing inclusive care for all.”
Barnes-Jewish Hospital earned the same designation and score for 2019.
