According to the New York Times article “Gay and Transgender Patients to Doctors. We’ll Tell. Just Ask.” By Jan Hoffman, May 29, 2017 (see attached), clinicians may have more sensitive interaction and thereby be able to provide better care by knowing if the patient is gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or straight. Although federal agencies are pushing health care providers to ask, the majority of doctors, nurse practitioners and nurses do not. The belief that patients will refuse to disclose their sexual orientation seems untrue as only 10% of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual in a randomized study said they would not answer a sexual orientation question.
Based on the New York Times article “Gay and Transgender Patients to Doctors: We’ll Tell. Just Ask.” and any other relevant literature (the Mayo Clinic, for example), discuss why you believe healthcare providers often “skip” the sexual orientation question. Furthermore, what do you suggest can/should be done to make it easier to disclose the information and open the line of communication? How may it improve care?