August 10, 2022

Oak Valley Health, Southlake Regional Health Care, and Stevenson Memorial Hospital are proud to announce the addition of pronouns into their electronic health records system, MEDITECH.

Starting August 10, 2022, all three organizations will be asking “would you like to share your pronouns?” at patient registration.

“We have already heard positive feedback from our staff and patients, about how meaningful this small action will be for our community. This is a step in the right direction,” says Jo-anne Marr (she/her), President & CEO, Oak Valley Health.

“Asking a person’s pronouns serves as a statement about the value our organization places on individual identity and supporting both our health care workers and our patients in being their authentic selves,” says Marr.

Understanding and recognizing gender identities is important to delivering inclusive, patient-centred health care. Using pronouns correctly is a sign of safety and respect – an environment all three organizations strive to achieve. All members of a health care organization – front-line staff, clinicians, and administrators – play a crucial role in offering an inclusive, affirming experience for all people, including those with non-binary gender identities.

One way to assure proper pronoun use is to collect this information from the start. Once the patient provides consent for their identified pronoun to be used, it will be entered into the shared platform and the pronouns will be used by the care team.

The goal is to improve care for LGBTQ2S+ people through new features in MEDITECH, including adding pronouns, which will follow the patient through every encounter.

TO VIEW THE FULL MEDIA RELEASE IN PDF FORMAT, PLEASE VISIT OUR DEDICATED MEDIA PAGE.