UnityPoint Health is about to make available in Cedar Falls a medical clinic with dedicated service hours for LGBTQ patients. It will be a first-of-its-kind within the hospital chain.
Beginning right after the first of the year, the UnityPoint clinic on Prairie Parkway in Cedar Falls will offer evening hours for LGBTQ patients two Wednesdays a month. Dr. Eric Neverman, a specialist in pediatrics and internal medicine, will help staff the clinic. He and the rest of the providers there have completed what’s called Safe Zone training.
“Some of the basics of that training involve things like terminology and really understanding some differences in gender and how we think, and sort of challenging ourselves to think about things a little bit differently," he says.
Dr. Neverman says the separate office hours will contribute toward making the LGBTQ community feel safe.
“Our goal is to provide a safe and inclusive environment for all patients, and our experience has been through focus groups some members of this community in particular haven’t had that experience with past healthcare,” he says.
A clinic connected to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City also dedicates service hours to the LGBTQ community. In a statement, the advocacy group One Iowa says it applauds UnityPoint for providing a crucial access point for LGBTQ Iowans in the Cedar Valley. The special clinic hours will be between five and seven p.m. on the first and third Wednesdays each month beginning after the first of the year.