Eighteenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

Transgender people are highly vulnerable and routinely marginalized in the US, often experiencing severe health disparities. Many providers, administrators, and staff lack knowledge, experience, and confidence in caring for this population. In response, our Northern California health care organization has spent three years fostering diversity and inclusion by developing system-wide inclusion resource groups, public-facing web resources and content, an integrated approach to charting, coding, referrals, and EMR documentation for this population, CME-approved trainings on transgender health, including the gender spectrum, hormonal management, and surgical options, which have reached more than 600 providers and staff, and A robust internal collaboration site for education and training resources. Outcomes include measures documenting satisfaction with trainings provided, increased confidence in providing transgender health care, increased patient satisfaction, improved access to all specialties in all geographic locations, new patient growth, decreased number of referrals to other health care organizations, and contributions to our community benefit goals. We believe sharing our experience as a large health care organization in creating a welcoming and affirming environment will help others provide excellent care to every patient, every time.