Healthcare facilities in all six New England states earned spots on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2019 Healthcare Equality Index. Among these, 21 qualified as Healthcare Equality Leaders, with four more scoring as Top Performers.
A total of 680 facilities participated nationwide. A record-setting 403 met criteria for leadership status and 146 scored as top performers.
The national organization created the Index in 2007 “to meet a deep and urgent need on the part of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans: the need for equitable, knowledgeable, sensitive and welcoming healthcare, free from discrimination,” states its report.
“No one facing health concerns should also have to worry about receiving inequitable or substandard care because of their LGBTQ status.”
To earn a leadership spot, participating facilities needed to meet a set of inclusive criteria, including nondiscrimination patient-centered, visitor and employment policies as well as staff training in LGBTQ patient care. To be a Top Performer, participants must have met 85–90% of these criteria.
Here are the participants, leaders and top performers in New England:
Massachusetts:
- Health Quarters, Beverly—leader
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston—leader
- Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston—leader
- Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, Boston—leader
- Boston Medical Center, Boston—leader
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute—top performer
- Fenway Health, Boston—leader
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston—leader
- Tufts Medical Center, Boston—leader
- VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston—leader
- Charles River Community Health—top performer
- Fairview Hospital, Great Barrington—participant
- VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System—participant
- Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Northampton—leader
- Berkshire Medical Center, Pittsfield—participant
- Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center, Worcester—leader
- Hilltown Community Health Center—top performer
New Hampshire:
- VA Manchester Medical Center, Manchester—leader
Maine:
- VA Maine Medical Center, Augusta—participant
- Penobscot Community Health Center, Bangor—leader
Vermont:
- VA White River Junction Medical Center, White River Junction—leader
Rhode Island:
- Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital, East Providence—participant
- Newport Hospital, Newport—participant
- Miriam Hospital, Providence—participant
- Rhode Island Hospital, Providence—participant
- VA Providence Medical Center, Providence—top performer
- Westerly Hospital, Westerly—leader
Connecticut:
- Bridgeport Hospital, Bridgeport—leader
- Bristol Hospital, Bristol—participant
- Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich—leader
- Middlesex Hospital, Middletown—leader
- Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven—leader
- Lawrence and Memorial Hospital, New London—leader
- Reproductive Medicine Associates of Connecticut, Norwalk—leader
- VA Connecticut Health Care System, West Haven—leader
Not a subscriber? Sign up today for a free subscription to Boston Spirit magazine, New England’s premier LGBT magazine. We will send you a copy of Boston Spirit 6 times per year and we never sell/rent our subscriber information. Click HERE to sign up!
