Assessing Health Literacy Knowledge and Practice for a PACE Program

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Patient Education
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Complex healthcare systems necessitate provider coordination to match patient health literacy levels.
• Effective strategies require understanding and addressing patients' varying abilities to access, understand, and use health information.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess organizational health literacy within a Program of All-Inclusive Care of the Elderly (PACE).
• To identify priority areas for developing strategies to improve health literacy congruence between providers and patients.

Main Methods:

• A 12-member interdisciplinary team from a PACE program completed the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit Assessment Questionnaire.
• Organizational priorities were identified based on questionnaire results.
• The AHRQ Toolkit was utilized to guide the development of subsequent improvement plans.

Main Results:

• Three priority areas were identified from the five subsets of the AHRQ Toolkit.
• Priority areas included: establishing a dedicated health literacy team, enhancing spoken communication with patients and caregivers, and improving the clarity of written health information.

Conclusions:

• Organizations, particularly nurses and quality care leaders, can use this assessment approach to evaluate their health literacy.
• Developing targeted improvement plans focusing on communication and information accessibility is crucial for enhancing patient care and outcomes.