Parkview Medical Center introducing transgender policy

New policy, which will include questions about gender identity on admission to be introduced July 10                   

(Pueblo, CO, July 8, 2019) – Parkview Medical Center is announcing a new policy aimed at ensuring every patient who comes through our doors receives the best health care possible.

Beginning July 10, patients admitted into Parkview Medical Center will be asked to disclose their gender identity on forms that become part of their medical record.

“Every patient has unique medical needs and transgender patients are no different,” said Dr. Kiely Schultz, a Parkview Medical Center physician and part of a committee that has worked on developing a new policy at the hospital for treating transgendered people. “Understanding a person’s gender identity is as important a part of the process of treatment and diagnosis as any of the other battery of questions patients answer upon admission to the hospital.”

Patients will have an option of declining to answer the question if they wish. Any answer will be a part of the patient’s confidential medical record and physicians may conduct a follow-up interview in private.

The policy also is a step toward creating a more comfortable environment for LGBTQ people to seek care. Parkview Medical Center has been working with the National LGBT Health Education Center and PFLAG to develop the policy.

“Parkview Medical Center’s mission is to provide the best health care to the people we serve, and our purpose is to provide that care to anyone who seeks us out,” said Parkview President and CEO Leslie Barnes. “This policy helps us achieve that by arming our physicians and nursing staff with crucial information and by creating an environment where LGBTQ people can feel safe and comfortable coming here for their health care.”