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Children's Hospitals
LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Children's Hospitals: Lessons Learned from the Healthcare Equality Index is a new guide from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation to help Children's Hospitals foster LGBTQ+ inclusion for their patients, the families of patients and their employees.
Since its inception, the Healthcare Equality Index (HEI) has become the nation’s leading tool to measure and benchmark progress in affirming healthcare for LGBTQ+ people in healthcare facilities. The HEI helps hospitals and other healthcare facilities to adopt LGBTQ+ inclusive policies and practices to enable them to better serve their LGBTQ+ patients, visitors, and employees. In 2019, 680 healthcare facilities participated in the HEI. Of these participants, 30 were Children’s Hospitals, and nearly 50 Children’s hospitals have participated in the HEI over the past three years. It is important that Children’s Hospitals be attuned to the needs of LGBTQ+ inclusion and consider participating in the HEI, as they all have LGBTQ+ patients, LGBTQ+ parents of patients, and LGBTQ+ employees. While the vast majority of the HEI recommended policies and practices can be equally applied to all healthcare facilities, regardless of patient population or services provided, children’s hospitals do have some unique experiences and issues surrounding LGBTQ+ inclusion. To help better understand what these unique issues were, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation convened a focus group of experts in LGBTQ+ health and Diversity and Inclusion leaders from Children’s Hospitals that regularly participate in the HEI. The Children’s hospitals were from throughout the United States, with particular emphasis placed on having geographic diversity. Attendees’ professional disciplines included social work, diversity and inclusion, divinity, ethics, nursing, medicine and law.
The attendees discussed their experiences with policies and practices aligned with the four criteria areas of the HEI:
- Non-discrimination & Staff Training
- Patient Services & Support
- Employee Benefits and Policies
- Patient and Community Engagement
Focus group members shared policy and best practice documents and discussed their experiences, successes, challenges, and unique issues pertaining to the HEI and children’s hospitals. This discussion and the substantive recommendations from the group are summarized in this guide.
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LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Children's Hospitals: Lessons Learned from the Healthcare Equality Index
Resources & Examples
The Non-Discrimination and Staff Training criteria of the HEI represents policies and practices that are considered foundational to LGBTQ+ patient-centered care. This criteria calls for: 1. a written patient non-discrimination policy that includes both “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression”; 2. a written visitation non-discrimination policy or an equal visitation policy; 3. a written employment non-discrimination policy that includes both “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression”; 4. communication of these policies to both your patients and your employees; and 5. staff training in LGBTQ+ patient-centered care.
Particularly in regard to the general patient and employee non-discrimination policies, Children's Hospitals do not have significant differences in their policies than their counterparts in adult hospitals. View the overall HEI Resource Guide for this criteria section.
The Patient Bill of Rights typically include both a non-discrimination statement and an equal visitation statement and are a great way to communicate these policies to patients and their families.
View the Patient Rights Policy from Arkansas Children's Hospital System
View the Patient's Rights and Responsibilities Brochure from Children's Hospital Colorado
The Patient Services & Support criteria of the HEI focuses on a wide variety of best practice recommendations from The Joint Commission and other sources to enhance care for LGBTQ+ patients. Four subsections compose this criteria section: LGBTQ+ Patient Services and Support; Transgender Services and Support; Patient Self-Identification; and Medical Decision Making. Children's Hospitals may find this criteria among the most challenging, however, many have found success in providing specific services to meet the needs of their LGBTQ+ patients. View the overall HEI Resource Guide for this criteria section.
Read about and watch a video on what Boston Children's Hospital is doing to provide comprehensive and affirming care for their LGBTQ patients
Children's National Hospital in Washington DC has an LGBTQ Youth Pride Clinic
John R. Oishei Children's Hospital in Buffalo has Youth Link and Be PrEPared Programs for LGBTQ+ and at-risk youth
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago has a policy on how to support their transgender patients
Learn more about the First Clinical Guidelines Published For Collecting Pediatric Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity Data
Many Children's Hospitals have comprehensive care clinics for transgender youth. View our map of these clinics and read our guide on creating these clinics.
The Employee Benefits and Policies criteria of the HEI is designed to familiarize an organization with best practices, from The Joint Commission and other sources, to promote equity and inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees. Children's Hospitals do not have significant differences in their employee policies and benefits than their counterparts in adult hospitals. View the overall HEI Resource Guide for this criteria section.
View And & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago's Gender Transition in the Workplace policy
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has a number of Employee Resource Groups including a LGBTQ+ Pride Resource Group
Read about how Children's Hospital of Philadelphia celebrated Pride Month
The Patient and Community Engagement criteria of the HEI is designed to familiarize an organization with best practices, from The Joint Commission and other sources, regarding LGBTQ-related community engagement. View the overall HEI Resource Guide for this criteria section.
Many Children's Hospitals include parents of LGBTQ+ patients on their Patient and Family Advisory Councils
Children's Hospitals often market to the LGBTQ+ community using images of LGBTQ+ families and/or placing ads in LGBTQ+ media or event guides. For example, see these ads from Children's Health System of Texas and Nemours Children's Health System.
A number of Children's Hospitals celebrate pride month with their patients and the local community and participate in the local pride parades and festivals. Here are some photos from Arkansas Children's Hospital System and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago participating in their local pride celebrations.
