LGBT patients treated in the emergency room (ER) are more comfortable reporting their sexual orientation on a medical form rather than in a discussion with a health care provider, a new study shows.
Patients in the study were two and a half times more likely to say they were comfortable reporting their orientation if it was done on a form rather than an interview with a nurse, researchers report in JAMA Network Open.
As of 2016, 12 million Americans, or four percent of the U.S. population, identified as sexual and gender minorities, according to a recent Gallup poll.
The new findings show that having people report their sexual orientation on a form during registration “is the best patient-centered way to collect sexual orientation and gender identity information in emergency rooms,” said study coauthor Adele Levine, a researcher at the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Her conclusions are drawn from a two-part experiment conducted at four ERs.
The data showed that sexual or gender minority (SGM) patients were 2.57 times more likely to be satisfied with reporting their sexual orientation and gender identity on a form as compared to verbally.
One barrier to asking patients about their sexual orientation and gender identity is that “people don’t know how to address this,” said Joanne Goodall, a nurse practitioner with the Gender and Sexual Development Program at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
In the end, Goodall said, “it comes down to respecting others and treating them in a humane way.” (Reuters)
