President Obama issued a memorandum on April 15, 2010 directing Health and Human Services (HHS) to craft rules that require all hospitals that receive federal Medicare and Medicaid funding – nearly every hospital in America – to protect the visitation and healthcare decision-making rights of LGBT persons. Additionally, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) has announced new, fully inclusive patient non-discrimination standards as part of their accreditation process. Kaiser Permanente updated its Patients’ Bill of Rights to fully protect LGBT patients and their families from discrimination. These changes, which took effect in Kaiser Permanente’s network of 36 hospitals, make Kaiser Permanente the first large health network to have a fully inclusive non-discrimination policy for LGBT persons. They are also the first health network to achieve Top Performer status in the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation’s Healthcare Equality Index (HEI). The index includes the following criteria: Patient Non-Discrimination Policies Patients’ Bill of Rights and/or non-discrimination policy includes “sexual orientation’ Patients’ Bill of Rights and/or non-discrimination policy includes “gender identity or expression” or “gender identity” Visitation Policies Visitation policies grant same-sex couples the same visitation access as different-sex couples and next of kin Visitation policies grant same-sex parents the same visitation access as different-sex parents for their minor children Cultural Competency Training and Client Services Provide cultural competency training addressing healthcare issues relevant to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Employment Policies and Benefits Equal employment opportunity policy includes “sexual orientation” Equal employment opportunity policy includes “gender identity or expression” or “gender identify”. Questions to Answer in this Assignment: Do you think that other criteria should be included as part of the index? If so, what would you add? How can association policies or employer policies be used to supplement legal requirements if an organization would like to protect its employees or clients from discrimination? Source: Human Rights Campaign. In addition to answering the questions above, write a policy for your organization in regard to non-discrimination for LGBT patients.* Your paper should be no less than 4 pages long and contain 4 references. All nursing students are required to submit assignment by end of Module 3. Please use the rubric below to help you complete this Assignment. Assignment 2 Rubric Competency 20 17 15 0 Points Earned LGBT nondiscrimination policy discussed completely and all questions answered Provides complete discussion of topic and required elements Provides brief discussion of topic and required elements Provides discussion of topic but some required elements missing Topic discussion and required elements are missing or inadequate /20 Minimum of 4 references included Provides 4 or more references Provides 3 references Less than 3 references noted No references /20 Competency 40 34 72 0 Points Earned Student crafts a policy for his/her organization Well-defined policy is described Policy is adequately discussed Policy is presented briefly with cursory discussion Policy is missing or inadequately discussed /40 Competency 10 8 7 0 Points Earned Grammar, spelling, and punctuation There are no errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation There are a few minor errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation that do not detract from the meaning There are several errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation There are major errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation that do not reflect scholarly writing /10 APA Compliance The paper meets APA format guidelines There are minor APA format errors There are several errors in format There are significant errors in format /10 Total Points /100 Submission status
