Utah law already requires period products in government buildings and public schools. Why not hospitals?
Penni Smith, Program Coordinator for the Utah Center for Bleeding and Clotting Disorders at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital (PCH), was researching ways to help patients experiencing period poverty when she found herself asking this question over and over again. Utah law already requires period products in government buildings and public schools. Why not hospitals?
Over the next eight months, Penni’s team sought to bridge this access gap. They launched a pilot, stocking products in PCH’s most-used restrooms.
This Period Positive Workplace (PPW) pilot not only proved that supply cost was small and sustainable, at less than $5 per employee each year, but it also led to improved quality of care, receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback from patients, families, and staff.
Following these findings, Intermountain Children’s Health adopted the PPW across three pediatric facilities, reaching over 4,500 employees and the patients they serve. The Center for Bleeding and Clotting Disorders also established a patient assistance fund, to help those in need to purchase discounted reusable products. Upon certification, Intermountain Children’s Health became the first hospital to join the PPW movement.
Intermountain’s experience shows that a hospital can be period-positive for less than $5 per employee per year. Penni hopes it won’t be the last: every hospital in Utah, and eventually across the United States, can be a place where no patient, parent, or staff member has to go without.
Read the full testimonial here. Learn more about the Period Positive Workplace initiative and get certified at periodpositiveworkplace.org.
