Health Literacy & Clear Communication Initiatives That You Can Duplicate

Diversity Rx – Pre-Conference Workshop October 18, 2010

Health Literacy & Clear Communication Initiatives That You Can Duplicate

Note to Participants - Please print this entire handout and bring it with you to the conference. No need to complete this prior to the conference, we will do it together.

Section 1 – Identify Stakeholders and Content for Business Case

Who are your stakeholders?

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What do they value? Consider - what problems do they try to solve? (clinical, marketing, customer service, legal, financial, etc.) This information will guide you in developing a business case.

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Notes – things that worked for others & challenges to consider

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My next steps related to stakeholders & business case

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Questions I have at this time

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Don’t forget to check out the resource pages below for references, when gathering information for your business case.

Section 2 – Establishing a health literacy workgroup

List departments or individuals whose workloads & metrics are impacted by low health literacy(poor communication, poor preventive care utilization or over utilization of inappropriate services (emergency room use), repeat customer service calls related to basic information needs, etc).

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Notes – things that worked for others and challenges to consider

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Things to Consider

Discuss the structure and leadership of the workgroup/working groups.
Establish realistic goals and objectives for each workgroup.
Determine your scope.
Prioritize and limit your work.
Consider ways to hold workgroup members accountable.
Recognize their efforts.

My next steps ______

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Questions I have at this time

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Section 3 – Basic Needs Assessment

What brought you here today? Did you find a gap, a customer complaint, print communication or increased call volumes?

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Determine scope –Which business area(s) of your organization will you assess (could be specific to your role, your department or your organization as a whole)

Example:physicians – communication with patients – understanding of patients ______

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Identify your tool(s). These tools can guide you to whom you need to reach out to & will give you topics to consider for assessment.

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Who will lead these initiatives – who on the workgroup will help?

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Who does the analysis on actions taken?

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Who will you present final recommendations to?

(direct management vs senior leadership – different approaches)

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How will you get buy-in from management?

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Who in my organization is impacted by these needs? This may lead you to your stakeholders & workgroup members.

Example: Need = lower literacy levels in our customer communications, need consistency

Stakeholders/workgroup members = writers;

SWOT analysis or Health Plan Organizational Assessment= policy,available

training for staff, communications protocol

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What resources (budget, training, staff, etc) do you need?

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Notes – from my breakout session.

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My next steps______

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Prioritize your needs

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Set realistic and measurable goals

Example - The communications workgroup will identify and review existing policies related to communications by March 2010. This workgroup will identify gaps and recommendations and report back to the overall health literacy committee by April 2010.

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Questions I have at this time

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Questions to consider as you identify your needs

What is your mission?
Where are your gaps in service?
Are there existing efforts related to communication efforts? Customer service improvement?
What questions are coming into your call centers?
What insight does your call center staff have about customer concerns?
What complaints are you receiving? What is the source of these complaints?
What are you learning in your customer focus groups or interviews?
Will training solve for any identified needs? What types of training?
Are there existing training budgets?
Are there existing training efforts elsewhere in the company? New hire training?
Can you join forces with other departments working on similar efforts?

Approaches to Training that you can consider

Depending on your needs and resources some approaches are more realistic than others

Develop the training internally, with volunteer staff or a dedicated team

Hire a consultant or your internal learning center

–Develop content and your staff implements the training

–Develop, implement & evaluate

–Develop advanced training content, your staff can develop the basics

Purchase training from external vendor, already developed

Consider the avenues:

–Face to face

–Web-based, live sessions

–Web-based, self-paced sessions

–Short podcasts

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Resource Page

Name of resource, short description, link / Category of Interest (if bold font = main resource)
National Assessment of Adult Literacy from the NationalCenter for Education Statistics (NAAL) The Health Literacy of America's Adults: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy / business case, needs assessment
Health Plan Organizational Assessment Tool & AHIP (Americas Health Insurance Plan Health Literacy Resources)
/ business case, internal workgroup, needs assessment
SWOT AnalysisWorksheet: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
* See next page for this worksheet / Business case, internal workgroup, needs assessment
National Network of Libraries of Medicine - Health Literacy: defined, background, research findings, economic impact, bibliographies, listserve, resources, etc.
/ business case, needs assessment
Institute of Medicine (IOM) Health Literacy Roundtable – The Roundtable‘s mission is to move forward the field of health literacy by translating research findings to practical strategies that can be implemented. Workshop summaries and articles related to health literacy
/ business case, internal workgroup, needs assessment
Health Literacy – A Prescription to End Confusion 2004 – Institute of Medicine – Can download for free or order book
/ business case, internal workgroup, needs assessment
Health Literacy List Serve - great resource, connect with colleagues / Internal workgroup
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Quick Guide to Health Literacy / business case, internal workgroup, needs assessment
National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy
/ business case, internal workgroup, needs assessment
AmericanCollege of Physicians Foundation (ACPF)
Health Literacy 6 min video
ACPF health literacy resource page - a great list of resources relevant to health care / business case, internal workgroup,training, needs assessment
Health Resources and Services Administration: Unified Health Communication.
This is an online course covering: health literacy, cultural competence, limited English proficiency (5 hours of CEUs)
/ internal workgroup, training, needs assessment
American Medical Association
Health Literacy Educational Kit
PVX5Q?childName=&parentCategoryName=&parentCategory=&productId=prod1060004&category Name=&prodId=&start=&parentId= / internal workgroup – if clinical focus, business case, needs assessment, clinical training
American Medical Association
Uninformed Consent: What Can Happen When a Patient Does Not Understand the Information You Have Provided
/ Clinical – internal workgroup
American Medical Association
Help Patients Understand (23 min video) / internal workgroup – if clinical focus, business case, needs assessment, training
URAC accreditation - this article mentions the core health literacy components

-- Put consumer materials in plain language;
-- Assess the use of plain language in consumer documents; and
-- Provide information and guidance on health literacy to staff who write consumer materials. / If clinical - business case, needs assessment
Health Literacy Universal Precautions Tool Kit (AHRQ)- Web-based toolkit to help adult and pediatric primary care practices address health literacy
/ If Clinical – business case, needs assessment, training

Our Contact information:

Crystal Duran, MPH, CHES Peggy Payne, MA, CDE

Phone: 720.733.0955Phone: 949.709.1119

Diversity Rx – Pre-Conference Workshop October 18, 2010

Health Literacy & Clear Communication Initiatives That You Can Duplicate

SWOT Analysis Worksheet – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

Consider your scope or your areas of interest. Use the below to assess needs – this can help lay the foundation for your action plan, your goals and your objectives.

Area of Interest / Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats
Example –
Staff awareness, buy-in related to low health literacy / Internal workgroup has skills to develop training, training dept. is available to help / Not sure where to start, which staff or which information to cover in training. Need to have workgroup develop a plan, it could take several months. No budget for training. / Lots of free resources online from which we can develop training content, can use volunteer staff to help develop content / If don’t offer awareness education, staff may not engage in our action plans.