Explore the vast range of titles available.

Designated a Doody's Core Title!At the intersection of health care delivery and practice there lies a large area of patient care with no manual: how to provide the best care to patients who have a critically low level of comprehension and literacy.

Health literacy is defined as the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. Poor health literacy affects nearly one in two United States adults and greatly increases the cost of healthcare. Most patient education materials are written at a grade level too high to understand. This article describes how to write and design printed patient education materials to make them more understandable and usable. A review of reading tests to determine grade level and design appropriateness is provided. A comprehensive guide for writing patient education materials is presented. The need for continuous evaluation of written materials is discussed.

Nurses and doctors rarely think about their patients' ability to read or to comprehend health-related information. Patients who are illiterate or have low literacy experience far less effective and satisfying health care delivery, a fact which nurses and doctors must take into consideration when providing health-related instruction.

The Institute for Healthcare Advancement has formulated 10 preventive measures that could help reduce unnecessary emergency department visits. They include enrolling those who are eligible for a health insurance plan.

[...]parents, already saddled with a communication disconnect with their preteen or teen, often walk out of the office just as confused as when they walked in. La Habra, California-based Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA) works on the front lines of health care delivery to raise awareness about health literacy, provide solutions to challenges primary care providers face, and create a better patient education experience.