In November, Elizabeth Adler (class of 2016) became the first student at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to receive an Excellence in LGBT Health and Advocacy Scholarship. The $10,000 award is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation. It underscores the Mount Sinai Health System’s commitment to ensuring high-quality medical care for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, with its diverse set of health needs.
Barbara Warren, PsyD, who directed LGBT health services at Mount Sinai Beth Israel before becoming Director for LGBT Policies and Programs in the Mount Sinai Health System’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion, has been working with the Association of American Medical Colleges to develop LGBT training and education resources for undergraduate and graduate medical students. Over the past three years, Dr. Warren has worked with staff and faculty at Mount Sinai Beth Israel to train more than 2,500 administrative employees, nurses, physicians, and others in LGBT culturally and clinically competent care.
In 2010, Mount Sinai Beth Israel became the first hospital in New York City to achieve Leadership Status for LGBT-inclusive policies and practices on the Health Equality Index (HEI), a benchmarking tool issued by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT-advocacy organization. In 2014, under Dr. Warren’s leadership, Mount Sinai St. Luke’s, Mount Sinai Roosevelt, and The Mount Sinai Hospital also achieved HEI Leadership Status.
Brianna Siegel, MD, a chief resident at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, says the hospital’s innovative LGBT clinical and cultural competency curriculum for residents was helpful in her interactions with LGBT patients. In her training, she says she learned how to ask LGBT patients relevant screening questions. From Zil Goldstein, FNP, Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Group’s Family Nurse Practitioner, who is part of the hospital’s LGBT training team and an expert in transgender health care, Dr. Siegel learned to mirror transgender patients’ chosen terminology for their anatomy.
The goal, says Dr. Siegel, is “letting people know they are in a safe environment. You want to get everything out in the open and deliver the care you were trained to give.”