This criterion is designed to familiarize an organization with best practices, from The Joint Commission and other sources, regarding LGBTQ+ related community engagement. This criterion focuses on community outreach and promotion to let the LGBTQ+ community around your facility know you are a welcoming and affirming facility, working toward LGBTQ+ inclusion.
HEI participants that are designated Leaders in LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality, can use their Leader designation to begin or expand outreach to LGBTQ+ groups and individuals in their service area. The Leader designation signals a strong commitment to LGBTQ+ equity and inclusion, and has been used by many organizations to strengthen community engagement.
There are 13 scored questions in this section. To receive the full 10 points, your facility must have at least 6 of these best practices in place. Facilities with 3 to 5 of these best practices in place will receive a partial score of 5 for this criterion.
Scored best practices include:
LGBTQ+ Community Engagement and Marketing
Understanding the needs of LGBTQ+ patients and community
In order to receive credit, a facility must:
Describe the external community event(s) and upload any relevant documentation.
More information:
Many HEI facilities participate in or sponsor their local Pride celebrations. There are also a wide variety of other types of LGBTQ+ events or initiatives that facilities can participate in or sponsor. Some of the most common ones include hosting an LGBTQ+ health fair, movie night, speaker, health panel, symposium, HIV testing, and more.
Click here to watch a recording of our webinar on Strategies for LGBTQ+ Community Engagement at Pride Festivals.
Examples:
In order to receive credit, a facility must:
Describe the external community event(s) and upload any relevant documentation.
More information:
Many HEI facilities participate in or sponsor their local Pride celebrations. There are also a wide variety of other types of LGBTQ+ events or initiatives that facilities can participate in or sponsor. Some of the most common ones include hosting an LGBTQ+ health fair, movie night, speaker, health panel, symposium, HIV testing, and more.
Click here to watch a recording of our webinar on Strategies for LGBTQ+ Community Engagement at Pride Festivals.
In order to receive credit, a facility must:
Describe efforts of marketing efforts and upload a sample of the creative content used to market or advertise to the LGBTQ+ community.
More information:
In many instances, hospitals advertise in local newspapers and magazines to promote their services, their HEI Leader status and to target the LGBTQ+ consumer. This is a great way to let the LGBTQ+ community know what services your facility provides while also reaching the LGBTQ+ consumer who is in the process of choosing where to receive their healthcare. Ad campaigns and marketing can further a message of a hospital’s values around LGBTQ+ inclusion. Increasingly, ads with authentic images of LGBTQ+ people are featured in both LGBTQ+ media outlets and the general press alike.
Check out this article entitled "Companies With LGBTQ-Inclusive Ads Can Increase Sales By 40%, And Here's Why".
Examples:
In order to receive credit, a facility must:
Upload screenshots of social media posts that include LGBTQ+ content and/or images.
More Information
Sharing LGBTQ+ content in your facility's social media posts is another helpful way to reach LGBTQ+ patients. While Pride month is a great time for these posts, sharing inclusive content throughout the year can demonstrate your facility's year-round commitment to the LGBTQ+ community. Ideas for posts may include highlighting your facility's participation in the HEI, sharing information about LGBTQ+ health, or celebrating an LGBTQ+ awareness day.
Check out this list of LGBTQ+ holidays and awareness days that happen throughout the year for more inspiration.
Examples:
In order to receive credit, a facility must:
Describe the ways this logo is used and upload a sample of the logo in use for external communications. The logo must clearly include LGBTQ+ imagery and integrate the facility or health system logo or name. The logo should be clearly recognizable to the community, that is it represents your facility/organization or system.
Examples:
In order to receive credit, a facility must:
Provide a link to a webpage or upload other public-facing documentation of your supplier diversity program.
More information:
Review HRC's page on LGBTQ+ supplier diversity programs for more information on the importance of these initiatives.
Examples:
In order to receive credit, a facility must:
Describe the legislation/initiative and how your organization publicly engaged in support of LGBTQ+ equality and upload any documents related to this legislative engagement.
More information:
It is important that hospitals and other healthcare facilities use their platform as both service provider and employer to advocate for their LGBTQ+ patients and employees and the policies that will protect them.
Examples:
In order to receive credit, a facility must:
Upload a copy of the survey and/or the results demonstrating the inclusion of LGBTQ+ demographic measures.
More information:
If your hospital or health system uses Press Ganey for your Patient Satisfaction Surveys, Press Ganey now has new demographic measures for sex, gender identity and sexual orientation. You should contact your Patient Experience Advisory or Account Manager to add SOGI options to your surveys. We encourage you to align your response categories with those that you are capturing in your Electronic Health Records. In addition, we strongly discourage you from using the "intersexed," "transsexed" and "transitioning" response categories to the question about sex.
Examples:
In order to receive credit, a facility must:
Upload a copy of the survey and/or the results demonstrating the inclusion of LGBTQ+ specific questions.
More information:
Examples:
In order to receive credit, a facility must:
Describe these efforts and the results of your engagement with the community and upload any related documents (i.e. results from your focus group, meeting minutes, examples from your community needs assessment, etc.).
More information:
Examples:
In order to receive credit, a facility must:
Describe who the individual is and the name of the board.
More information:
Having a representative from an LGBTQ+ organization or an openly LGBTQ+ person serving on a governing or community advisory board helps to ensure that LGBTQ+ interests and needs will be addressed, and also helps to create an actively inclusive atmosphere within your facility.
Visit the CenterLink Directory of LGBT Community Centers to find a community center in your area that you might reach out to help you find representatives to serve on your governing or community advisory board.
In order to receive credit, a facility must:
Describe the LGBTQ+ health research conducted/supported and list any related publications, websites, etc.
More information:
Visit the Center for Population Research in LGBT Health for more information on LGBT health research, data resources, professional organizations supporting LGBT-related research, and more
Examples:
To receive credit, a facility must:
Describe the analysis conducted and upload any related documentation.
More information:
Your facility's patient satisfaction and/or EHR data can be a valuable tool in addressing the needs of your LGBTQ+ patients. Learn more in the Fenway Institute publication, You've Built It, Now What?: Applying Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Data to Clinical Quality Improvement and Decision Support