Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 52

Community Health Innovations

Equal and Respectful
Care for LGBT Patients
Shane Snowdon

The importance of providing an inclusive
environment cannot be underestimated.

I realized I was a lesbian when I was a
teenager, decades ago—in an era
when I would never have dreamed I’d
write those words anywhere, much
less in a publication like Healthcare
Executive. It’s been a joy to see our
country move toward equality for
those of us who are lesbian, gay,
bisexual and/or transgender (LGBT),
and it’s been particularly moving to
see healthcare’s growing concern for
LGBT patients.

Letting LGBT patients know that
they will receive welcoming,
sensitive care also reverses another
troubling phenomenon: LGBT
people appear to delay and avoid
healthcare more than other groups.
When I began providing LGBT
training and consulting to healthcare
providers in 1999, many of them had
never stopped to think about the fact
they had LGBT patients: Even then,
LGBT people were scarcely visible in
healthcare, except as HIv/AIDS
patients. nowadays, I’m happy to
report, many healthcare providers
not only realize they treat the full
spectrum of LGBT patients but also
are eager to learn about the

52

Healthcare Executive
nOv/DEC 2013

challenges we face and how to ensure
that we feel welcome.
What do healthcare executives most
need to know about this sizeable and
long overlooked patient population?
For one thing, I’ve found that they
are often stunned to learn how concerned LGBT patients can be about
receiving adequate care.
One data point that startles executives is how many LGBT patients
fear, based on our experiences in society at large and/or in healthcare, that
we will be refused treatment because
we are LGBT. In the landmark
national survey When Health Care
Isn’t Caring, produced by Lambda
Legal in 2010, 9 percent of the lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) respondents believed they would actually be
turned down for care because of their
sexual orientation, 20 percent of
HIv-positive patients thought they
would be refused care and 52 percent
of transgender patients felt they
would be turned away.
Data like that indicate how much
concern LGBT people have about
how we’ll be treated and how effective it can be for a healthcare facility
to signal that it will do right by us.
Letting LGBT patients know they
will receive welcoming, sensitive

care also reverses another troubling
phenomenon: LGBT people appear
to delay and avoid healthcare more
than other groups. For example, the
California Health Interview Survey,
which surveys more than 50,000
state residents, has found that 29
percent of LGB Californians delay
and/or don’t seek needed healthcare,
compared to 17 percent of heterosexual Californians. The bad news is
that this gap is attributed largely to
fear of discrimination. The good
news is that the gap can be bridged
by providers offering meaningful
assurances that we will receive unbiased, respectful care.
What does discriminatory healthcare look like? The Lambda Legal
survey of nearly 5,000 LGBT people and people living with HIv in
the U.S. found that 29 percent of
LGB respondents, 36 percent of
HIv-positive respondents and 73
percent of transgender respondents
felt sure they would be treated differently in healthcare because of
their LGBT status. What did they
mean by “different” treatment?
Fifty-six percent of the LGB
patients and 70 percent of the
transgender patients reported having had at least one of these four
experiences with healthcare providers because of their LGBT status:
having staff either refuse to touch
them or take unneeded precautions
before touching them, being subjected to harsh language, receiving
rough physical treatment or having
their health condition erroneously
attributed to being LGBT.
Sadly, these experiences in healthcare
mirror what LGBT people as a group
face in other areas of life: Kaiser



Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013

Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013
Contents
ACHE Online
Take Note
Perspectives
Managing Your Career in Transformative Times
Generation Now: The New Era of Leadership
Aspirations of a Servant Leader
Professional Pointers
Healthcare Management Ethics
Satisfying Your Customers
Community Health Innovations
Public Policy Update
Careers
Governance Insights
Improving Patient Care
CEO Focus
Executive News
On the Move
Member Accolades
Chapter News
Professional Development Calendar
2013 Editorial Index
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Cover2
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Contents
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 2
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 3
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - ACHE Online
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 5
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Take Note
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 7
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Perspectives
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 9
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Managing Your Career in Transformative Times
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 11
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 12
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 13
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 14
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 15
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 16
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 17
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 18
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 19
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Generation Now: The New Era of Leadership
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 21
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 22
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 23
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 24
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 25
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 26
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 27
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 28
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 29
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Aspirations of a Servant Leader
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 31
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 32
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 33
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 34
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 35
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 36
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 37
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 38
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 39
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Professional Pointers
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 41
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Healthcare Management Ethics
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 43
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 44
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 45
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 46
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 47
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Satisfying Your Customers
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 49
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 50
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 51
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Community Health Innovations
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 53
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 54
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 55
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Public Policy Update
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 57
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 58
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 59
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 60
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 61
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Careers
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 63
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 64
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 65
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Governance Insights
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 67
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 68
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 69
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Improving Patient Care
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 71
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 72
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 73
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 74
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 75
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - CEO Focus
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 77
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 78
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 79
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Executive News
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 81
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 82
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 83
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - On the Move
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 85
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 86
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 87
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Member Accolades
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 89
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Chapter News
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 91
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Professional Development Calendar
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 93
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 2013 Editorial Index
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 95
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 96
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Cover3
Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - Cover4
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