At ProviderTrust, our purpose is to create a safer healthcare for everyone.
When we talk about creating a safer healthcare for everyone, we must ask the question: who is most likely to be left out of safer healthcare today? Who is everyone? And is there anything we as a company and individuals can do to ensure that their world is safer tomorrow than it is today?
We know that the patients most likely to be treated by an excluded or sanctioned provider are dual-enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid, under 65, and a person of color.
We know that beyond encounters with excluded providers, Black Americans face unequal access to healthcare as well as social determinants of health (SDoH) that impact healthcare outcomes, quality of life, and life expectancy. Earlier this month we wrote about our affirmation that Black Lives Matter and outlined our commitments to stumble bravely in pursuit of racial justice within our company, through the work we do, and as a member of the Nashville community.
Everyone Means Everyone
It is a matter of integrity for us to also affirm the humanity of LGBTQ people and use our voice to shed light on the experiences had within our healthcare systems. We believe that everyone deserves safe healthcare. But we have a lot of work to do to make that a reality.
Here are some striking statistics that show the breadth of discrimination and barriers LGBTQ patients face in trying to seek care.
- More than 50 percent of LGBT people experience some form of healthcare discrimination.
- LGBTQ people of color are more than twice as likely to avoid a doctor’s office than white LGBTQ individuals.
- 28 percent of transgender and gender non-conforming (GNC) people have postponed medical care when sick or injured due to discrimination and disrespect.
- In 2015, 80 percent of first-year medical students expressed implicit bias against gay and lesbian people and 50 percent expressed explicit bias.
- Beyond overt discrimination, more than half of transgender individuals report encountering a significant lack of provider knowledge.
Resources, Tools, and Research
Lighthouse is an NYC-based practice committed to helping connect LGBTQ patients with affirming healthcare providers. Here are some additional resources for understanding and combating the barriers to safe care that LGBTQ patients face.
AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges)
Study: You Don’t Want Second Best
GLMA, Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality
Our Commitment
Today, we are exploring how we can partner with our clients and other organizations to create a safer healthcare for LGBTQ patients. We are working on creating educational resources that shine the light on these inequalities and arm healthcare leaders with tools to improve these disparities within their organizations and communities. Change starts in one’s backyard and we are committed to doing the small things that make a big difference.
If healthcare disparities is a topic you care about and have been working on, please get in touch with us! Whether your lens is Human Resources, Compliance, or Population Health, we’d love to figure out how we can partner together to be a force for good.
