Hospital Responds to Trans Discrimination Flap

Monica- do you have a facebook account/ If so, you have to click on 'Like'- that will add you as a 'member' of theire page- leave your post then scroll down and click 'unlike' so you don't get endless updates from the page- unless you want to.

When I went to the Facebook page for the hospital, there was no way for me to add a comment. Am I clueless?? What disturbs me most about the way the Hospital has officially "responded" to the incident is that none of the authorities making statements have apologized to Erin. I know it's because they're saying their internal investigation is still ongoing, but I still think it's really just...not classy.

When I went to the Facebook page for the hospital, there was no way for me to add a comment. Am I clueless?? What disturbs me most about the way the Hospital has officially "responded" to the incident is that none of the authorities making statements have apologized to Erin. I know it's because they're saying their internal investigation is still ongoing, but I still think it's really just...not classy.

They have a facebook page you can comment on.... http://www.facebook.com/ballmemorialhospital here's a link to it

they can do diversity training til they're blue in the face- the only thing that going to make a deifference to bigoted employees is if someone gets fired...if Erin suing? What if her condition was serious and she got severely sick -or worse....I hope she sues them into the stone age!!!!!

I wish that Advocate would give more information on stories like this. To read this vague account of what happened, I agree that the employees doing her triage should be disciplined including being fired if they actually did what she says they did. As for the doctor that just sounds very odd that he would say he "couldn't" treat her because she was transgender. What kind of doctor was he? I don't know anything about the internal workings of a transgendered woman, but perhaps this was a gynocologist who was called in to treat a biological woman but because she was actually born a man, he couldn't treat her. The key was that the doctor said "couldn't" not "wouldn't" there is a very big difference in those two words. That doesn't excuse the way she was treated by hospital employee, they need to have some diversity training.

Oh, there's no question, that was malpractice. I was just answering a question from a previous poster, who was aking whether the gender of a patient makes a medical difference. Suppose the triage nurse had written down--correctly--that the patient was a female. If she had abdominal pain the Dr. would have told her that he was going to do a gynecological exam; at that point she says "I am post-op male to female transgender." Or perhaps she didn't say anything, and the doctor would prepare for a gyn exam. As soon as the doctor looks at the vulva and introitus he/she would know immediately.Assuming the Dr. knows her/his stuff.

Dr Fernando you make a valid point, but the Hospital obviously was not taking this patients rights seriously, nor was she treated with dignity and respect. The hospital could have politely explained that her biological sex could have medical relevance and entered it in the medical records for the doctor to see. She should have been seen as swiftly and taken as seriously as any other patient and this obviously did not happen. All involved should be SEVERELY sanctioned and the doctor should lose privileges in the hospital. As for the hospital, they are responsible for all of this and should be held completely accountable. There can be NO excuse for the kind of treatment this patient received and I, for one, hope the hospital suffers a loss for it... perhaps then it will not happen again!

The more you know about the patient, the better you can treat her/him. There are quite a few pathologies whose diagnosis and prognosis take biological sex into account, even in the ER. Suppose this patient came to the ER with abdominal pain: does she have ovaries? And in a non-emergency setting there's a lot of other things that have to be considered. For example, lupus erythematosus affects women 10 times more often than men. You also need details about sexual habits; in a rectal discharge on a person who has receptive anal sex, you have to consider gonorrhea. And so on.

Is there a doctor out there who can answer a lay person's question: When a patient is to be treated in a hospital or similar facility, are there ailments/situations/cases where it is of significance to the treatment to know the patient's biological gender? Or put practically: Is there absolutely no medical need to register a patient's biological gender into his/her file?