Implications of health literacy attributes: the provider’s and health professional’s perspective

Abstract

Post-Affordable Care Act (ACA), consumers are empowered to have more control over their healthcare than ever before, giving patients more voice and choice with their plans for healthcare. Health literacy becomes increasingly important because navigating through the health care system is already difficult. With an improvement in health literacy levels, we can see an improvement in patient health outcomes, patient satisfaction, and a decrease in hospital readmissions and costs. This has public health relevance because it contributes to the efforts of disease prevention, health promotion, and prolonging life among the population as a whole. For the aforementioned reasons, an increase in health literacy can improve health outcomes and improve quality of life. A survey was conducted to understand the provider’s perspective of the current climate and effectiveness of the 10 Attributes of a Health Care Organization developed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). This survey was administered through a Health Literacy email listserv that includes over 1500 providers and health professionals, of which 48 responded. Results show that 83% of respondents perceive that less than 25% of their employees are aware of the IOM 10 Attributes. Additionally, 56% perceive their leadership prioritizes health literacy at a rating of 6-10 (scale from 1(lowest) – 10 (highest)), with a mean score of 6. When asked, “How strongly do you feel you understand the attributes and their aims?” 77% reported comprehension levels ranging from 6 to10 with a mean score of 7. Results suggests that providers understand the attributes but portrays not many of their employees do so. The survey results also suggest that providers and their organizations are not utilizing all 10 Attributes to their fullest potential to create a health literate organization. I have proposed that the federal government incentivize healthcare leaders to appoint a Health Literacy Champion within their organizations. For example, if hospitals want to continue benefiting from Medicare programs, then they should be required add the 10 Attributes to their quality metrics. It should be the hospital’s responsibility to either adopt the teach-back method or create its own intervention to help patients understand and communicate better with providers