Transgender and non-binary patients can now enroll in your practice with their pronouns, gender identity, sex at birth, and chosen name in addition to their legal name. This will help you to build trust with gender-nonconforming patients before their first appointment.

Establishing trust with trans patients is especially important given the amount of medical discrimination that they have likely already faced. In 2015 alone, one third of trans adults reported having a negative experience with a medical provider - interactions that ranged from verbal harassment to being refused necessary medical care. Direct Primary Care practices are uniquely positioned to build trust with trans patients because of the amount of time and access that they are able to give to their patients.

The first point of contact that a trans patient will have with your practice is likely to be your online signup form. With these changes, your practice will be able to demonstrate inclusivity and affirmation of new patients’ gender identities.

Dr. Jerrica Kirkley is the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Plume, the first health technology company focused on radically increasing access to medication and products for the trans- and broader queer community by providing gender-affirming hormone therapy to trans and nonbinary patients. 

“The trans experience is unique in that, for many, the journey to expressing one’s authentic self involves navigating a gender-normative medical system,” said Dr. Kirkley. “Establishing sign-up pages that provide a gender-affirming experience is a simple step that medical providers can take to begin to build trust with their patients and signal to them that they are heard and supported, no matter how they identify." 

Here are the changes that you can expect to see in HintOS online signup and on the patient chart:

Patients have the option to select a Chosen Name. This name will be displayed throughout HintOS and on their billing notifications, rather than their legal name.

Patients have the option to select their gender and pronouns from a drop-down menu or type in their identity and pronoun.

The patient chart displays the patient’s chosen name, sex, gender, and pronouns.

To enroll a patient over the phone, you can enter their legal and chosen names, sex, gender, and pronouns directly into their patient chart. You can also update your existing trans patients’ charts with this information by clicking “Edit”.