BWFH earns 95 in Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Healthcare Equality Index

Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital is one of 251 healthcare providers nation-wide to receive the “LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Top Performer” designation.

Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital has received an evaluation of 95 out of 100 and the designation of “LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Top Performer” in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 15th anniversary edition of the Healthcare Equality Index (HEI), the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey of healthcare facilities on policies and practices dedicated to the equitable treatment and inclusion of their LGBTQ+ patients, visitors and employees. A record 906 healthcare facilities actively participated in the 2022 HEI survey and 251 of those earned an “LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Top Performer” designation.

“We have long been committed to providing culturally competent healthcare to all of our patients and families,” says BWFH President David O. McCready. “We have made developing programs and policies that meet the specific needs of our LGBTQ+ patients, families and employees a priority, and we remain committed to doing everything we can to ensure everyone who comes to us for medical attention has an exceptional experience here at BWFH.”

“Every person deserves to have access to quality healthcare, be respected and heard by their doctor and feel safe in the facility where they are receiving care. But LGBTQ+ people are often subject to discrimination in all spaces, including healthcare facilities, which leads to members of the community avoiding care and anticipating our voices will not be respected in an incredibly vulnerable environment,” says Tari Hanneman, Director of Health & Aging at The Human Rights Campaign. “The Healthcare Equality Index, at its core, strives to ensure LGBTQ+ people are protected and affirmed by their healthcare providers and feel safe seeking services. Our HEI active participants are truly pioneering the healthcare industry by implementing robust, comprehensive LGBTQ+ inclusive policies that hopefully, because of their work, will become standard practice.”

The HEI evaluates and scores healthcare facilities on detailed criteria falling under four central pillars:

• Foundational Policies and Training in LGBTQ+ Patient-Centered Care
• LGBTQ+ Patient Services and Support
• Employee Benefits and Policies
• Patient and Community Engagement

In the 2022 report, an impressive 496 facilities earned HRC’s “LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader'' designation, receiving the maximum score in each section and earning an overall score of 100. Another 251 facilities earned the “Top Performer” designation with scores between 80 to 95 points and at least partial credit in each section. With 82 percent of participating facilities scoring 80 points or more, healthcare facilities are demonstrating concretely that they are going beyond the basics when it comes to adopting policies and practices in LGBTQ+ care.

The remarkable progress reflected in the 2022 HEI includes:

• 93 percent of participants met the HEI’s training requirements, completing more than 200,000 hours of staff training in LGBTQ+ patient-centered care.
• 82 percent of participating facilities earned either the Leader or Top Performer.
• 99 percent of HEI participants documented that they include both “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in their patient non-discrimination policy.
• 99 percent of HEI participants documented that they include both “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in their employment nondiscrimination policy.
• 81 percent of HEI participants offer transgender-inclusive healthcare benefits to their employees, up from 75 percent in 2019, which was the first year that it was required to receive Leader status.

In addition to active survey participants, the HRC Foundation proactively researched the key policies for LGBTQ+ inclusion at over 1,300 non-participating hospitals. Unfortunately, these research hospitals were much less likely to have LGBTQ+ non-discrimination policies in place, which is a stark contrast to the near-perfect adoption by active participants. Among the researched hospitals in which the HRC Foundation was able to find or obtain enumerated patient non-discrimination policies, only 70 percent have policies that include both sexual orientation and gender identity compared to 99 percent of HEI participants.