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The National Strategy for Quality, released to Congress at the end of March, is just the first iteration of reports required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to outline priorities and areas of focus for healthcare.
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A patient safety initiative in Ohio has led to health care savings of nearly $13 million, reduced patient days spent in the hospital by 900, and resulted in nearly 3,600 fewer adverse drug events and infections in children.
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To address the issues of health literacy, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center in Cleveland, OH, made a radical move. It abolished its patient education committee and formed the Health Literacy Institute that consists of an interdisciplinary team of caregivers who are dedicated to improving health literacy through better communication.
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Many healthcare institutions are using the seven goals stated in the National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy developed by the Department of Health and Human Services to guide health literacy initiatives. The goals include:
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The topic of health literacy can be daunting, as there are many factors to address and it impacts the culture of an institution. It is difficult to know how to get your arms around the issue, says Becky Smith, RN, MA, manager of the Section of Patient Education at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.
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During the time a document on plain language was being written at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, the national health literacy movement was under way.
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How can staff bolster patients' understanding of correct oral contraceptive use after they leave the office? Try these tips from the On the Same Page OCP Health Literacy Project Training Manual:
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Many patients on dialysis might not understand medical information critical to their wellbeing, according to a study appearing online for the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN).
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Searching for information on health literacy can be a time-consuming task. Yet information is required to support the need for initiatives, create clear and concise documents, or assess the status of an organization in regards to health literacy.
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How do you think patients' family members would fare in game in which they assume the identity of a character in a computer-based video simulation that calls for key decisions to ensure infection prevention? They can find out by playing "Partnering to Heal" at http://www.hhs.gov/partneringtoheal.
