If hospital scorecards are marketing tools, then the appearance of 14 of U.S. News & World Report's top 17 hospitals on a new index may reflect an industry-wide push to cater to the gay health care consumer.

Six marquee hospitals in Utah were invited — no one RSVP'd — to participate in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's 2011 Healthcare Equality Index, a measure of antidiscrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender [LGBT] patients and employees. They are: LDS Hospital and St. Mark's Hospital in Salt Lake City, McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden, Utah Valley Regional in Provo, the University of Utah's hospital and clinics and its school of medicine.

Staff at University Health Care, Intermountain Healthcare and MountainStar, which owns St. Mark's, don't recall receiving the survey, they said.

But hospital officials were quick to tout policies they've adopted to keep their facilities free of prejudice, a goal they say goes hand-in-hand with providing quality health care. "We'd actually fare pretty well in the assessment," said University Health Care spokesman Christopher Nelson.

All three hospital chains offer domestic partner benefits to employees.

New hires get inclusion and sensitivity training. Sexual orientation and gender identity are called out in their equal employment opportunity policies; sexual orientation is also mentioned in the U.'s patient bill of rights.

And the health systems have open visitation policies. Patients can designate visitors and health care proxies, and in cases where they can't speak for themselves, hospitals defer to advance directives or court orders.

No Utah hospital made the U.S. News' "honor roll," reserved this year for 17 medical centers that scored at or near the top in at least six of 16 specialties. Rated No. 1 is Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore followed by Massachusetts General in Boston and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. — all three appear in the LGBT-friendly index.

While U.S. News' ranking is largely a reflection of a hospital's reputation, the index measured hospitals against seven standards for equity.

The Human Rights Campaign sent questionnaires to the country's 1,000 largest hospital groups; 87 responded. The survey asked whether hospitals had explicit visitation rights for same-sex couples and same-sex parents, inclusive hiring practices and cultural sensitivity training for all employees.

The participation by leading health centers "is a recognition that we are all part of the community," said Brandie Balken, executive director of Equality Utah. "Like all residents of the U.S. we consume health care in one way or another...It's important to know your hospital is a safe space, especially at such a vulnerable time in your life."

Among 27 LGBT-friendly leaders — those with explicit visitation rights for same-sex couples and same-sex parents, inclusive hiring practices and cultural sensitivity training for all employees — were Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and 36 hospitals in California's Kaiser Foundation network.

"Providing equal treatment to all patients is central to delivering the highest quality, safest and most effective health care," said Mark Laret, CEO of University of California-San Francisco's Medical Center in a press statement on Tuesday.

The report comes at a time of heightened visibility for LGBT health needs.

Earlier this year the Obama administration passed rules expanding hospital visitation rights. Last March a report by the Institute of Medicine highlighted the need for better demographic information as means to understand LGBT health outcomes. And this summer the Joint Commission, the country's largest hospital accreditation organization, announced it will include more expansive anti-discrimination policies as a condition of accreditation.

kstewart@sltrib.com —

Links to more information

O U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll.

> bit.ly/oCqmbr

Human Rights Campaign LGBT index

> hrc.org/hei2011