Health Care Workers' Perspectives on Collecting Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the Adult Primary Care Setting.

Abstract

Background: Despite numerous calls for standardized collection of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data in clinical settings, uptake of this practice still lags.

Objectives: This study conducted a preimplementation assessment of staff attitudes toward SOGI data collection within an adult primary care practice in an urban academic medical center in the northeastern United States.

Research design: We created a process map of the flow of patient data from the point of registration to the clinical encounter to identify all staff roles associated with registration and patient demographic data collection. We purposively sampled staff members across these roles and conducted semistructured virtual interviews between November 2021 and February 2022. The research team used deductive and inductive coding and conducted a thematic analysis to identify barriers and facilitators to implementation.

Subjects: Nine clinical staff and eleven nonclinical staff were interviewed.

Measures: Participants were asked about their general experiences with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) patients, their perspectives on collecting this data, and potential barriers and facilitators to incorporating this into the workflow.

Results: The main themes that emerged were the relevance of SOGI data to the clinical practice; concerns about patient acceptability; the prevalence of cis-gender, heteronormative assumptions; and concerns about linguistic, cultural, and generational differences. Differences were noted between clinical and nonclinical staff.

Conclusions: Greater education is needed to help both clinical and nonclinical staff understand how patients' SOGI demographics can be used to provide affirming, patient-centered care. Implementation strategies can be tailored to address specific barriers at the individual, organizational, and social levels.