A Philadelphia hospital that was named one of Human Rights Campaign’s leaders in health-care equality last year is taking another step to create an even more welcoming and inclusive environment.
The Einstein Healthcare Network hospital in North Philadelphia will launch special gynecology-department hours specifically for the lesbian and bisexual community, beginning later this spring.
The chair of the hospital’s OB/GYN department and two lesbian health-care professionals will staff the clinic. During the special clinic hours, health issues relevant to the lesbian community will be highlighted, rather than typically heterosexual concerns; magazines and wall posters about pregnancy will be switched; registration forms will be reworded; and nurses, receptionists, medical assistants, technicians and others who will staff the clinic will undergo sensitivity training.
“The issues and social concerns that the gay community has to face to gain access to care are daunting,” said Dr. David Jaspan, chair of Einstein’s department of obstetrics and gynecology. “And we wanted to break down the barriers and make it an easily accessible, safe place for gay women to access care.”
Jaspan said that, often times, many lesbians and bi women are subjected to uncomfortable conversations with their health-care provider when asked about sexual activity, birth control and pregnancy.
“During these hours, we will ask questions that are appropriate and relevant to the people we are serving so that nobody will feel uncomfortable,” Jaspan said.
The need for clinic hours devoted to this segment of the community arose in part when Dr. Michele Style treated “the patient who should never exist” early in her residency.
The patient, who lived within walking distance of the clinic, came in with advanced-stage cervical cancer — largely preventable with regular pap smears. The patient, a lesbian, had not been to the gynecologist for 10 years because she felt uncomfortable seeing a traditional gynecologist.
Style also experienced similarly uncomfortable situations herself.
“I remember walking into a gynecologist’s office in my 20s and it didn’t feel like a safe or welcoming place, and I’m from a medical family,” Style said.
This spurred Style and her colleague, physician assistant Sharon Butterworth, both lesbians, to suggest they open the niche clinic — especially with the large LGBT population in nearby Mt. Airy.
Clinic hours and other details have not been finalized yet. For more information, visit, www.einstein.edu.