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LA LGBT Center’s path toward building a stronger community

The Los Angeles LGBT Center cares for and celebrates LGBT individuals and families in Los Angeles and beyond. Founded in 1969, the Center is one of the few Federally Qualified Health Centers in the nation with providers specializing in primary care for LGBT people. Its clinicians are experts at caring for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people—and understand how, often, the LGBT community is disproportionately affected by social and political issues.

The medical providers also understand that some members of the LGBT community have specific needs. For example, patients who do not use their legal name or identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. As trusted partners, Allscripts continues supporting the Center’s mission to provide a safe and inclusive space for members of the LGBT community.

Gabriel Lopez, Health Information Systems Director at the Center, said, “Allscripts was sensitive to transgender patients’ needs and built the FollowMyHealth® app with fields to allow our patients to enter their preferred information. This unique feature created a stronger relationship and level of comfort between provider and patient.”

To bring the inclusive nature up a level, the Center partnered with Allscripts to add demographic fields for Sex Assigned at Birth, Administrative Sex, and Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI). The effort to collect this vital information has resulted in more than 1,200 patients whose medical care can be more accurately monitored for appropriate clinical follow-up. The Clinical Module’s patient demographics address gender identity in the patient banner and preferred pronouns are implemented within the history and physical notes. The interfaces built between the Allscripts® Practice Management system and Allscripts Professional EHR™ monitor the databases, so all systems mirror each other.

The Allscripts commitment to partnership goes beyond technological changes to the system. “Without hesitation, the Allscripts team began using terms pertaining to the trans and nonbinary community on a regular basis. We appreciated that it became part of their vernacular when working with us,” said Lopez.

To learn more about how the FollowMyHealth platform helps the LA LGBT Center engage with their patients, you can read the full client story here.