More than 30 Alabama healthcare industry leaders joined Human Rights Campaign staff at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital on the day of Thursday, March 24 to celebrate the inauguration of the 2016 HRC Healthcare Equality Index (HEI) and to honor Alabama HEI leaders in LGBTQ healthcare equality.
A yearly survey, the HEI is utilized by inpatient and outpatient healthcare organizations nationwide to strengthen the care they offer LGBTQ patients and support to LGBTQ healthcare staff. Participating healthcare facilities are scored in 4 places of LGBTQ inclusion: Non-discrimination and staff training, LGBTQ patient services and support, LGBTQ patient and community engagement, and employee benefits and policies. Healthcare facilities meeting all of these significant 4 criteria for LGBTQ patient-centered care earn the status of “Leader in LGBTQ Healthcare Equality.”
In Alabama, the number of healthcare agencies ranked HEI Leaders doubled in the year 2016. At the HEI 2016 launch event in Birmingham, HRC staff involving Deputy Director of Health and Aging, Tari Hanneman, honored leadership from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital, Cooper Green Mercy Health Services, Medical West Health Centers, and the VA Medical Centers in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and Montgomery for achieving 2016 “Leader in LGBTQ Healthcare Equality” status.
Mary Beth Maxwell, HRC Senior Vice President, applauded Alabama’s HEI leaders for advancing healthcare equality for LGBTQ Alabamians, identifying how critical it is that that they have access to and a powerful level of comfort with their medical provider. “We think of problems like healthcare, where people are engaging vulnerably with daily institutions of life - that lived experience is important to people.”
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