SDS Accreditation Update
Health care literacy gap is addressed
What did the doctor say? Improving health literacy to protect patient safety is a free white paper offered by The Joint Commission that explores the use of medical terms in communications with patients and the challenges that this use creates for patients. The paper emphasizes that what may be very clear to the physician is not always clear to the patient. The Joint Commission report on strategies for addressing health literacy and protecting patient safety contains 35 specific recommendations that cover a wide range of important improvement opportunities including:
- sensitization, education, and training of clinicians and health care organization leaders and staff regarding health literacy issues and patient-centered communications;
- development of patient-friendly navigational aids in health care facilities;
- enhanced training and use of interpreters for patients;
- redesign of informed consent forms and the informed consent process;
- development of insurance enrollment forms and benefits explanations that are "client-centered"
- use of established patient communication methods such as "teach-back"
- expanded adaptation and use of adult learning centers to meet patient health literacy needs;
- development of patient self-management skills;
- health care organization assessment of the literacy levels and language needs of the communities they serve;
- design of public health interventions that are audience-centered and can be communicated in the context of the lives of the target population;
- integration of the patient communication priority into emerging physician pay-for-performance programs;
- provision of medical liability insurance discounts for physicians who apply patient-centered communication techniques.
(Editor's note: To download a copy of the paper, go www.jointcommission.org and select "public policy" from the top navigational bar. On the Public Policy homepage, select "'What Did the Doctor Say?:' Improving Health Literacy to Protect Patient Safety." Another free tool to improve communications with patients can be found at www.ihi.org. Select "topics" then "patient safety," then choose "safety: general" and "tools." Scroll down to find "General Tools." A list of available tools includes "Tips for Safer Surgery," a tip sheet for surgical patients to use to improve communications with their health care providers.)
What did the doctor say? Improving health literacy to protect patient safety is a free white paper offered by The Joint Commission that explores the use of medical terms in communications with patients and the challenges that this use creates for patients.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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