Care of the LGBTQI+ Patient and Their Families: Policies, Procedures, and Practices

Whether your employer is a clinic, a hospital, home health, or long term care; whether you are an MD, RN, an occupational therapist, a receptionist, or in the C-Suite, approximately 5% - 10% of your patients may be gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Additional patients may be transgender, intersex, or questioning their gender identity or sexual orientation. The healthcare needs of GLBT patients may appear to be the same as other patients’, but institutionalized heterosexism in healthcare is a real barrier to quality care. Healthcare providers acknowledge they are serving more GLBT patients, and that they want to provide quality GLBT care, but aren’t sure how to best create and implement the policies, procedures, and practices to ensure best patient outcomes. GLBT patients face a multitude of barriers to equitable care such as: refusals of care, delayed or substandard care, mistreatment, inequitable policies and practices, end-of-life issues, and limits on visitation. The challenges begin from the beginning of the health professionals’ relationship with their GLBT patient—starting from asking them to identify if they are male or female, married or single, on their intake form.

Objectives:

• To list relevant laws, regulations and standards required for health equity and patient-centered care of GLBT patients


• To identify key policy, procedure and practice issues related to GLBT patients and their families to incorporate into already existing policies, procedures and practices


• To discuss opportunities to collect GLBT –relevant data and information during the healthcare encounter


• To identify or revise strategic community outreach efforts to the GLBT population


• To name a variety of resources