Keck named LGBTQIA healthcare equality leader


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Photo of a building at the Keck School of Medicine, a tall gray building with a red and yellow bordered banner.
Keck Medicine of USC hospitals earned a designation of “LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader” in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Healthcare Equality Index, USC Student Health announced Tuesday. (Simon Park | Daily Trojan file photo)

Three Keck Medicine of USC hospitals — Keck Hospital of USC, USC Norris Cancer Hospital and USC Verdugo Hills Hospital — and USC Student Health received the designation of “LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader” Tuesday. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation awarded Keck the highest-possible score of 100 from its 15th annual Healthcare Equality Index. 

Keck is one of 496 healthcare facilities to earn this distinction, with 906 participating in the survey. This is the sixth recent time that Keck hospitals earned the title and the first year that Student Health participated. The application process included taking part in a series of training sessions and updating policies and procedures.

“We know that it’s really important that all students are able to get the care that they need, including students who are LGBTQIA or seeking care for a variety of conditions,” said Dr. Sarah Van Orman during a student media health briefing Tuesday. “We’ve done a lot of work in this area.”

Over the past two years, Keck’s LGBTQIA initiatives focused on staff development training and included the creation of a trans-affirming workgroup, Keck Medicine Gender-Affirming Care Program, which provides transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse patients supportive care. In 2015, Keck established the Keck Pride Committee as a sounding board for the development of inclusive healthcare practices to foster a welcoming environment for LGBTQIA patients and families. Keck also actively sponsors local LGBTQIA events.

The HEI evaluates healthcare facilities based on performance in four criteria — foundational policies and training in LGBTQIA patient-centered care, LGBTQIA patient services and support, employee benefits and policies, and patient and community engagement. 

The California Office of Emergency Services awarded Student Health’s Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Services a grant that the program has used to expand services for LGBTQIA students and survivors of sexual and partner abuse through a partnership with Young Women’s Christian Association of Greater Los Angeles. 

“We’re really trying to look at this holistically, both in terms of medical care, mental health care, survivor care, our communications materials, our training,” Van Orman said. “We know we still have a lot of work to do.”

Bella Durgin-Johnson contributed to this report.