A new field guide from the Joint Commission urges US hospitals to create a more welcoming, safe, and inclusive environment that contributes to improved health care quality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) patients and their families.

The field guide features a compilation of strategies, practice examples, resources, and testimonials designed to help hospitals in their efforts to improve communication and provide more patient-centered care to their LGBT patients.  The guide, Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient- and Family Centered Care for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Community, was developed with support from the California Endowment and is available for free download below.

An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission accredits and certifies more than 19,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards.

You can get the Field Guide on the Joint Commission website.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal panel on Tuesday recommended that  all preteen children – not just girls – get a vaccine that prevents a common  sexually transmitted disease, in a move that public health experts hope will  lead to widespread immunity to the virus and, eventually, cut rates of certain  types of cancer.

The controversial vaccine against the human papilloma virus, or HPV, has been  recommended for 11- and 12-year-old girls since 2006, when studies showed that  girls and young women who were immunized had lower rates of cervical cancer.  Several types of HPV can cause cancers in the cervix, anus, head and neck.

But similar guidelines for boys lagged until recent studies showed that the  vaccine prevents genital warts in boys and young men and reduces rates of anal  cancer, especially in men who have sex with men.

The new recommendations, which will likely be formalized by the Centers for  Disease Control and Prevention by early next year, were based in large part on  that data. But a critical reason for including boys in the recommendations is to  protect girls from becoming infected with HPV, doctors and public health  officials said.

Read the full article at SFgate.com .

Be Well Pittsburgh! collaborates with health care consumers, health care providers, social service providers and community organizations to improve uninsured Pittsburghers’ awareness of and access to health care resources. Be Well! was founded in 2005 and was originally funded by a Seed Award from the Sprout Fund. The Seed Award supported the printing of 6,000 copies of a resource booklet entitled “Be Well! Healthcare Options for the Uninsured.”  The booklet was distributed in public venues
and through social service organizations in Pittsburgh. Its release was launched at a community health fair at the Quiet
Storm coffeehouse during the summer of 2006. The information was listed online at www.bewellpgh.org shortly thereafter.

The information in the booklet and on the website was compiled using some existing resources and through additional research, as well as through information from health care providers themselves. All resources must be free or offered at reduced cost for
uninsured persons.

Be Well! continues to revise, update, print and distribute the booklets as funds allow.  They also continually revise and update the
website. They act as a reference source to individuals and service providers, participate in community events, and hold community information sessions on health care resources for uninsured people.

You can check out Be Well Pittsburgh! for services and more information.

From blogAIDS.gov: 

To mark the one-year anniversary of the release of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, the Justice Department has launched a new section of its Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) website, http://www.ada.gov/aids.

Persons with HIV and persons with AIDS are covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which gives federal civil rights protections to persons with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, and state and local government services. The new web page provides important information and resources related to combating discrimination on the basis of HIV/AIDS.

Users can visit the site to file an HIV/AIDS discrimination complaint, to obtain ADA technical assistance materials related to HIV/AIDS, and to get the latest updates about the Department’s efforts to stop HIV/AIDS discrimination. The website also provides easy access to an extensive collection of ADA settlement agreements, as well as information about enforcement, mediation, technical assistance, and certification activities.

Go to blogAIDS.gov for the full article.

Get a copy of the National AIDS Strategy here.

National HIV Testing Day (NHTD) is an annual campaign coordinated by the National Association of People with AIDS to encourage people of all ages to “Take the Test, Take Control.”

Early HIV diagnosis is critical, so people who are infected can fully benefit from available life-saving treatments. Currently, almost 40 percent of people with HIV are not diagnosed until they already have developed AIDS. That can be up to 10 years after they first became infected with HIV. Finding out whether you are infected with HIV is the first step to improving your health and the health of your partners and your family.

Find out more about National HIV Testing Day and where to get tested.

Find out how you can help promote Testing Day.

President Obama speaks out for National HIV Testing Day.

From the Huffington Post:

New regulations regarding hospital visitation rights went into effect Tuesday, paving the way for members of the LGBT community to have further control over their own medical decisions. Under the new protocol, initiated last April and developed over the following months, hospitals partaking in Medicare and Medicaid must now allow all patients to decide visitation rights, as well as who to entrust with making medical decisions on their behalf, regardless of sexual or gender identity.

Read the full story on the Huffington Post.

From the New York Times:

In a development that could change the battle against AIDS, researchers have found that taking a daily antiretroviral pill greatly lowers the chances of getting infected with the fatal virus. In the study, published Tuesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that the hundreds of gay men randomly assigned to take the drugs were 44 percent less likely to get infected than the equal number assigned to take a placebo. But when only the men whose blood tests showed they had taken their pill faithfully every day were considered, the pill was more than 90 percent effective

Read the full article on the New York Times Website.