Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Joint Commission issues LGBT report for hospitals
News posted Nov. 8, 2011
2011-11-09

This article shared 6564 times since Wed Nov 9, 2011
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


A new field guide from the Joint Commission urges U.S. hospitals to create a more welcoming, safe, and inclusive environment that contributes to improved healthcare quality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT ) patients and their families.

An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission accredits and certifies more than 19,000 healthcare organizations and programs in the United States. Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization's commitment to meeting certain performance standards.

The field guide features a compilation of strategies, practice examples, resources, and testimonials designed to help hospitals in their efforts to improve communication and provide more patient-centered care to their LGBT patients.

The guide, Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient- and Family-Centered Care for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender ( LGBT ) Community, was developed with support from the California Endowment.

See http://www.jointcommission.org/lgbt/

The report reads in part:

Like many other populations identified as at-risk or disadvantaged, research has demonstrated that LGBT individuals experience disparities not only in the prevalence of certain physical and mental health concerns, but also in care due to a variety of factors, including experiences of stigma, lack of awareness, and insensitivity to their unique needs.6 These disparities include the following:

-- Less access to insurance and healthcare services, including preventive care ( such as cancer screenings )

-- Lower overall health status

-- Higher rates of smoking, alcohol, and substance abuse

-- Higher risk for mental health illnesses, such as anxiety and depression

-- Higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV infection

-- Increased incidence of some cancers

In addition, LGBT patients face other barriers to equitable care, such as refusals of care, delayed or substandard care, mistreatment, inequitable policies and practices, little or no inclusion in health outreach or education, and inappropriate restrictions or limits on visitation. These inequalities may be even more pronounced for LGBT people from racial/ethnic minorities or due to other characteristics such as education level, income, geographic location, language, immigration status, and cultural beliefs. Experiences of discrimination and mistreatment have, in many cases, contributed to a long-standing distrust of the healthcare system by many in the LGBT community and have affected their health in profound ways. ...

To ensure quality care, all patients, regardless of social or personal characteristics, should be treated with dignity and respect in healthcare settings and should feel comfortable providing any information relevant to their care, including information about sexual orientation and gender identity. This field guide is a compilation of strategies, practice examples, resources, and testimonials designed to assist hospital staff in improving quality of care by enhancing their efforts to provide care that is more welcoming, safe, and inclusive of LGBT patients and families.

FROM A NEWS RELEASE

Joint Commission focuses on improving care for LGBT patients

New guide provides strategies, examples, resources for hospitals

( OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. — November 8, 2011 ) A new field guide from The Joint Commission urges U.S. hospitals to create a more welcoming, safe and inclusive environment that contributes to improved health care quality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT ) patients and their families. The guide, Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient-and Family-Centered Care for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender ( LGBT ) Community: A Field Guide, was developed with support from The California Endowment.

Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient-and Family-Centered Care for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender ( LGBT ) Community: A Field Guide features a compilation of strategies, practice examples, resources and testimonials designed to help hospitals in their efforts to improve communication and provide more patient-centered care to their LGBT patients. In addition, the field guide offers information to help hospitals identify gaps, safety risks, and areas needing improvement, as well as information to strengthen outreach efforts to the LGBT community. The field guide can serve as an educational resource that hospitals can use to develop staff training, as well as for compliance efforts related to laws, regulations and standards.

"All patients, regardless of social or personal characteristics, should be treated with dignity and respect and should feel comfortable pro viding any information relevant to their care, including information about sexual orienta tion and gender identity," says Jerod M. Loeb, Ph.D., executive vice president, Division of Healthcare Quality Evaluation, The Joint Commission. "Every hospital and health care organiza tion is unique and no single approach works best, but The Joint Commission encourages hospitals to adopt a combination of the strategies and practices discussed and to use these examples as a foundation for creating processes, policies and programs that are sensitive and inclu sive of LGBT patients and families."

Research has demonstrated that LGBT patients often do not receive the same level of care as other patients due to social stigma, lack of awareness and insensitivity to their unique needs. Members of the LGBT community often have less access to insurance and health care services, experience higher rates of smoking, alcohol and substance abuse, and are at higher risk for mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, sexually transmitted diseases and increased incidence of some cancers. In addition, LGBT patients face other barriers to equitable care, such as refusals of care, delayed or substandard care, mistreatment, inequitable policies and practices, little or no inclusion in health outreach or education, and inappropriate restrictions or limits on visita tion.

Earlier this year, The Joint Commission implemented its patient-centered communication standards to specifically prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression and to ensure access to a support person of the patient's choice — two critical issues to the LGBT community. Although the standards and The Joint Commission's 2010 guide Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence and Patient- and Family-Centered Care: A Roadmap for Hospitals were designed to encompass many issues in LGBT health care, the need to provide more infor mation, guidance and education to health care organizations to address specific LGBT issues was apparent. The Joint Commission brought together representatives from professional associations, key stakeholders and LGBT health care advocacy groups to identify and discuss how to build upon recommendations and practice examples in The Roadmap for Hospitals and tailor these with specific sug gestions and strategies geared toward the unique health needs and concerns of those in the LGBT community.

Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient-and Family-Centered Care for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender ( LGBT ) Community: A Field Guide is available for download at www.jointcommission.org/lgbt.aspx. For more information, please e-mail The Joint Commission at lgbt@jointcommission.org .

###

Founded in 1951, The Joint Commission seeks to continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value. The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits more than 19,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including more than 10,300 hospitals and home care organizations, and more than 6,500 other health care organizations that provide long term care, behavioral health care, laboratory and ambulatory care services. The Joint Commission also provides certification of more than 2,000 disease-specific care programs, primary stroke centers, and health care staffing services. An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission is the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. Learn more about The Joint Commission at www.jointcommission.org .


This article shared 6564 times since Wed Nov 9, 2011
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Thailand parliament passes landmark marriage bill
2024-03-27
On March 27, Thailand's parliament approved a marriage-equality bill by an overwhelmingly large margin—a landmark step that moves one of Asia's most liberal countries closer to legalizing same-sex unions, media ...


Gay News

Brown Elephant Returns To Northalsted
2024-03-26
Brown Elephant's Lake View location is moving to Northalsted and already accepting donations. Howard Brown Health, the largest LGBTQ+ health center in the midwest, operates three Brown Elephant resale shops in the Chicagoland area to help ...


Gay News

An interstate trans healthcare crisis: Illinois prepares for influx of people seeking gender-affirming care
2024-03-26
With hard-won rights, such as access to hormone replacement therapy or permission to use one's chosen pronouns in school, breaking down in states across the country, trans residents of all ages are left with a choice: ...


Gay News

Planned Parenthood of Illinois expands Orland Park health center
2024-03-26
--From a press release - ORLAND PARK, Ill. - Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) announces the expansion of its existing Orland Park Health Center at 14470 S. LaGrange Rd., Suite 106. The 1,800-square-foot expansion is projected to increase sexual and reproductive ...


Gay News

Wyoming is latest state to ban gender-affirming care for minors
2024-03-24
On March 22, Wyoming became the latest state to prohibit gender-affirming care for minors, The Hill noted. In doing so, it joined 23 other states that passed laws restricting or banning the treatment. Legislators in both ...


Gay News

Family of 2004 murder victim holds event in Lake View; reward announced
2024-03-24
The year 2004, for the family and friends of Lake View resident Kevin Clewer, will forever be marked by tragedy. On March 24 of that year, Clewer, 31, was found in his apartment at 3444 N. Elaine Pl.; he was the ...


Gay News

No charges filed in Nex Benedict fight; campaigns call for Walters' removal
2024-03-22
In Oklahoma, Tulsa County District Attorney Stephen Kunzweiler announced that no charges will be filed in connection with the fight that happened the day before transgender, nonbinary high school student Nex Benedict died by suicide, NBC ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Va. marriage bill, AARP, online counseling, Idaho items, late activist
2024-03-21
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed bills protecting same-sex marriages at a state level, surprising some, WRIC reported. The bills—passed out of both chambers along mostly party lines—will require clerks ...


Gay News

Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council sets a new course
2024-03-18
Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council held its first meeting of the calendar year on Feb. 28 at City Hall in the Loop under the leadership of the recently appointed chair Jin-Soo Huh. The LGBTQ+ Advisory Council is ...


Gay News

WORLD Leaked messages, Panama action, author dies at 32, Japan court, out athletes
2024-03-15
Hundreds of messages from an internal chat board for an international group of transgender health professionals were leaked in a report and framed as revealing serious health risks associated with gender-affirming care, including cancer, according to ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Missouri measure, HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, judge, Texas schools
2024-03-15
In Missouri, a newly proposed law could charge teachers and counselors with a felony and require them to register as sex offenders if they're found guilty of supporting transgender students who are socially transitioning, CNN noted. ...


Gay News

College athletes sue NCAA over transgender policies
2024-03-15
Former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines was among a group of college athletes who filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on March 14, accusing it of violating their Title IX rights by allowing trans swimmer Lia Thomas ...


Gay News

UK health service to stop routinely prescribing puberty blockers to minors
2024-03-14
NHS (National Health Service) England confirmed that children will no longer routinely be prescribed puberty blockers at gender-identity clinics, the BBC reported. The decision came after a review found there was "not enough evidence" that they ...


Gay News

LGBTQ+ people attacked by mobs in Greece
2024-03-14
Just weeks after a landmark law granted same-sex couples in Greece the right to marry, nearly 200 people dressed in black chased a transgender couple through the town square in Thessaloniki, the country's "second city" and ...


Gay News

One Roof Chicago launches youth-focused workforce development program
2024-03-14
One Roof Chicago (ORC) is set to launch its first training, education and job placement program for LGBTQ+ young adults in late spring. This Community Health Workers and Elder Care program is a part of ORC's ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS






Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.