Dignity Health’s St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach has been recognized as a leader in LGBTQ health care by the Human Rights Campaign, according to a recent press release.
The Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest civil rights organization dedicated to protecting LGBTQ rights, puts out its Healthcare Equality Index each year.
The HEI, originally established in 2007, evaluates health care providers across the country to determine how well their practices and policies support equitable and inclusive health care for LGBTQ+ patients.
“The HEI has been instrumental in transforming how health care facilities care for LGBTQ+ individuals,” HRC said on its website. “Over the years, we have steadily strengthened the HEI criteria to align with best practices around inclusive LGBTQ+ healthcare.”
More than 1,000 health care facilities — including teaching hospitals, pediatric hospitals and federally qualified health centers — participated in the 2024 HEI process.
Those who sign on to participate in the HEI are evaluated in four major categories, according to the HRC. They include:
Foundational elements of LGBTQ patient-centered care.
Patient services and support.
Employee benefits and policies.
Patient and community engagement.
Providers are given a score — and honored with certain designations — based on their performance in each category.
Organizations that earn the highest score, a total of 100, earn the HRC’s LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader designation.
St. Mary Medical Center earned a score of 95 this year — just shy of the perfect 100. The hospital was designated an LGBTQ Healthcare Equality High Performer.
The hospital had five points deducted from its total, according to the HRC, because some Catholic Dignity Health facilities — including the Long Beach one — do not provide “sterilizing hysterectomies and orchiectomies on any patient regardless of gender identity or expression,” according to Dignity Health’s website.
In the case that an LGBTQ+ patient is unable to obtain services in alignment with their gender identity because of that principle, Dignity Health refers patients to external providers or one of its non-Catholic facilities, its website says.
But still, the HRC deducted those five points from St. Mary Medical Center’s score on the grounds that the policy “may lead to discriminatory treatment that is in conflict with their non-discrimination policy,” according to HRC’s report.
St. Mary Medical Center, according to its June press release, updated dozens of its policies, expanded staff and clinician training, updated forms to better capture patients’ pronouns and feedback, and more in an effort to better its offerings for LGBTQ+ patients.
“This recognition from HEI is a testament to the commitment of our compassionate care teams,” St. Mary’s President and CEO Carolyn Caldwell said in the news release, “who strive to ensure that our LGBTQ+ patients feel welcome, heard, and safe at our care sites every day.”
Out of the more than 1,000 facilities evaluated in the 2024 HEI, 384 received a perfect score the HRC’s highest designation.
A significant component of the HEI, according to the HRC, is ensuring that health care providers are compliant with regulations against discrimination based on a person’s sexuality or gender identity.
“By providing resources and recognition to health care facilities that prioritize LGBTQ+ patients’ needs,” HRC said, “the HEI catalyzes positive change within the health care sector and can help prevent this type of discrimination from occurring.”
To read the full Healthcare Equality Index report, visit tinyurl.com/HRCHEI24.
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