Systematic Collection of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in a Public Health System: The San Francisco Health Network SO/GI Systems-Change Initiative

Abstract

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) individuals experience disparate outcomes within health care that are often unacknowledged by health systems due to lack of systematic collection of sexual orientation/gender identity (SO/GI) data. This article describes a San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) initiative to standardize SO/GI data collection for every patient/client utilizing SFDPH services, as well as the training development and implementation around this initiative. This initiative incorporated community engagement throughout and had an aim of meeting new regulatory requirements, improving patient experience and, ultimately, equipping staff with the needed data to uncover and reduce health disparities. Upon completion of the first wave of training (May 2019), a total of 5618 (69.1%) staff completed the online training and 2189 (26.7%) staff completed the optional in-person training. As of June 2020, SO/GI was collected in 35.0 percent of empanelled primary care patients and in 26.8 percent of the unique patient encounters overall throughout the health network. This initiative demonstrated the feasibility of implementing SO/GI data collection as an inclusive and community-driven culture change initiative, fully integrated with the complexities of operational change in a diverse public health network. Next steps include providing ongoing training and support for clinicians, staff, and patients, implementing SO/GI data collection for pediatric patients/clients, and identifying health disparities within the network to create targeted interventions and improve the care experience for our LGBTQ+ patients/clients.