The Human Rights Campaign has recognized Vanderbilt University Medical Center as a health care equality index “Leader in Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Healthcare.”

By meeting the “Core Four” rated criteria in the HEI survey — patient non-discrimination policies, visitation policies, employment non-discrimination policies and training in LGBTI patient-centered care — Vanderbilt is one of only 234 hospitals and clinics in the nation and the only one in the state of Tennessee to receive the designation.

In a release, Dr. Andre Churchwell, associate dean for diversity for the Vanderbilt School of Medicine, said the designation is the result of a concerted effort by a number of people across the VUMC campus to address equality in health care for the LGBTI community.

For more on this story, read here.

Metro is ready to move on construction of its new Lentz Public Health Clinic, with a ceremonial groundbreaking set for today at 26th Avenue North and Charlotte Avenue. 

Gresham Smith and Partners is serving as both the architect and engineer. A general contractor has yet to be announced. See rendering below.

Joey Garrison and The City Paper have the full story here.

The Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt has once again been named among the nation's leaders in pediatric health care in U.S. News & World Report magazine’s annual Best Children's Hospitals rankings released today.

The hospital achieved national rankings for a maximum of 10 out of 10 pediatric specialty programs.

“Our sustained commitment to provide the very best care for the children of this region across a broad continuum of specialty and subspecialty services is in evidence in these rankings,” C. Wright Pinson, deputy vice chancellor for Health Affairs and CEO of the Vanderbilt Health System, said in a release.

The U.S. News Best Children's Hospitals rankings for 2012-2013 recognize top performers among the nation's 178 designated pediatric hospitals.

U.S. News & World Report has ranked the Carell facility every year since the inception of the publication’s pediatric rankings, now in their sixth year.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers will benefit from a two-year, $750,000 grant from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

The grant represents one of the first the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit institute has awarded. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 established the grant, the only such grant awarded in Tennessee.

The VUMC research will begin this summer and will track both patients’/patient families’ and clinicians’ reports of “non-routine” events in four different clinical areas: elective pediatric cardiac surgery, outpatient pediatric oncology (chemotherapy administration), adult day surgery, and adult patients with acute coronary syndrome who are undergoing cardiac catheterization.

MyVU.com has the story here.
 

The $30 million expansion effort at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt is completed. The addition brings 33 beds and 30,000 square feet to the existing facility. MyVU has the details here.

New York City-based publisher W.W. Norton & Company has released the third edition of Hospital and Healthcare Facility Design, authored by architectural executives Richard L. Miller, Earl S. Swensson and Todd Robinson, all of Earl Swensson Associates in Nashville. 

Healthcare Design magazine called the book, well known among architects, planners, students and hospital administrators, upon its release a “healthcare design Bible.”

Hospital and Healthcare Facility Design expands coverage of key topics covered in the two previous editions (1995 and 2002), such as women’s and children’s healthcare and care for the elderly. It also explores the latest advances in new medical campuses, freestanding facilities and continuous-care senior living communities.

Founded in Nashville more than 50 years ago, Earl Swensson Associates is known for its architectural services to health care and higher education clients.
 

United Neighborhood Health Services has received a $1.72 million federal grant to renovate its Main Street Clinic, Madison Clinic and Cayce Clinic and to establish a diabetes care center. 

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is funding the grant. 

In a release, UNHS Chief Executive Officer Mary Bufwack said she learned about the grant on Tuesday, May 1, when Acacia Salatti, deputy director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Faith-Based & Community Partnerships, visited Nashville.

Bufwack (pictured here) said that about $1.2 million of the grant is designated to renovate UNHS’s Main Street Clinic, located in East Nashville at 905 Main Street. The funds will allow UNHS to create a multi-service diabetes center, with new space for dental services, a wellness center, an education center and a pharmacy. The funds will also allow for some renovation to the two-story clinic, parking lot improvements and furnishings for the first floor.

“The enormous human and social cost of obesity and diabetes requires an aggressive response,” Bufwack said. “We will now be better able to meet the health care needs of underserved and uninsured people in our community.”

The additional $500,000 in grant money is designated for renovations at the Madison Clinic (601 Due West Blvd. in Madison) and the Cayce Clinic (617 S. Eighth St. in East Nashville).

Last year, UNHS served more than 32,000 people, with approximately half of the individuals served having no insurance.
 

A delegation representing Nashville-based Leadership Health Care is headed to Washington, D.C., to meet with high-ranking officials this week. The trip marks the 10th anniversary of the group, which is led by Judith Byrd and is part of the Nashville Health Care Council. Of note, the anniversary reception and dinner will feature former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs as the keynote speaker.

The City Paper has details here.