Farías asks about support after care disruption under LGBTQ Healthcare Bill of Rights
Farías asks what immediate support exists for a young person or family after care disruption, before a formal complaint. Brown discusses state inpatient discharge rights and professional continuity-of-care rules, but says there is no clear city analog and may follow up.
Thank you.
I'd like to talk a little bit about the NYC LGBTQ Healthcare Bill of Rights.
We know the Bill of Rights directs individuals who experience discrimination or denial of care to file complaints through the NYC Human Rights Commission.
Can you walk us through what support, if any, is available to a young person or their family in the immediate aftermath of a care disruption or before a formal complaint process actually gets underway?
Yes, I'll briefly touch on this.
And I just want to clarify, Chair Farias, you're speaking about a patient who is discharged and immediately prior to filing a complaint,
you know, in the event that they need medication or ongoing services.
Yes, and what the process is prior to in terms of referring directly to the Bill of Rights that we have in the city.
Yeah, and so, you know, my understanding of this, and I think we, you know, we may have to get back to you, but I'll pass it back to my colleagues, too, if they have additional information.
And so the way that I thought about this question, I'll say is that my understanding, I guess, of
New York state law, anyway, in regards to patients who are in an inpatient hospital setting, they actually do have certain enumerated rights in regards to discharge and continuation of care and continuity of care.
I'm unaware at this time of a similar sort of analog in relation to city law, and that may just be because of regulatory purview.
But I will say sort of in a private clinic, all physicians are licensed and regulated by the state board, and professional rules for physicians
expressly state that it is professional misconduct.
malpractice to discharge a patient without figuring out a plan to make in a reasonable amount of time to make sure
that they are going to be able to find a provider and ensure continuity of care and they also need to be available in that time to provide care and on an emergency basis.
And I'm not sure if my colleagues have any other, anything else to add on that point.
Oh, wonderful, sorry.
And I would also assume not only in timeframe, but also potentially in the language they speak, et cetera, they're receiving whatever after, like whatever care needs to come, right?
Like we're also, I just wanna throw it out there that we should also be making sure we're
Bilingual, which I'm making the assumption that we are in terms of aftermath care.
I mean, I believe our language access rules would require that.