Approximately 80 million adults in the United States have low health literacy - an individual's ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information. Low health literacy creates difficulties in communicating with clinicians, poses barriers in managing chronic illness, lessens the likelihood of receiving preventive care, heightens the possibility of experiencing serious medication errors, increased risk of hospitalization, and results in poorer quality of life. It is important for health care organizations to develop strategies that can improve their health literacy, yet organizations often find it difficult to determine exactly what it means to be health literate. How Can Health Care Organizations Become More Health Literate?: Workshop defines a health literate health care organization as "an organization that makes it easier for people to navigate, understand, and use information and services to take care of their health." In November 2011, the IOM Roundtable on Health Literacy held a workshop to discuss the growing recognition that health literacy depends not only on individual skills and abilities but also on the demands and complexities of the health care system. How Can Health Care Organizations Become More Health Literate?: Workshop summarizes the workshop.

Contents

• THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
• PLANNING COMMITTEE ON ATTRIBUTES OF A HEALTH LITERATE ORGANIZATION
• ROUNDTABLE ON HEALTH LITERACY
• Reviewers
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Attributes of a Health Literate Health Care Organization
  • THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN: ATTRIBUTES OF A HEALTH LITERATE HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION
  • DISCUSSION
  • REFERENCES
• 3. Reaction Panel 1
  • PUBLIC HOSPITAL SYSTEM
  • PUBLIC CLINIC
  • DISCUSSION
  • REFERENCES
• 4. Reaction Panel 2
  • PHYSICIAN PRIVATE PRACTICE
  • PHARMACY PRACTICE
  • DISCUSSION
• 5. Reaction Panel 3
  • DENTAL PRACTICE
  • HOME HEALTH
  • DISCUSSION
• 6. Reaction Panel 4
  • HEALTH LITERACY AND PATIENT-CENTERED CARE
  • AN EMPLOYER’S VIEW
  • THE CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES (CMS) PERSPECTIVE
  • DISCUSSION
  • REFERENCES
• 7. Reflections on Lessons Learned
• Appendix A The Other Side of the Coin: Attributes of a Health Literate Health Care Organization
• Appendix B Agenda
• Appendix C Speaker Biographical Sketches

Rapporteur: Lyla M. Hernandez.

This study was supported by contracts between the National Academy of Sciences and Aetna, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (HHSP233200900537P), the American College of Physicians, America’s Health Insurance Plans, GlaxoSmithKline, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HHSH25034004T), Johnson & Johnson, the East Bay Foundation (Kaiser Permanente), Merck and Co., Inc., and the Missouri Foundation for Health (09-0290-HL-09). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the organizations or agencies that provided support for this project.

Suggested citation:

IOM (Institute of Medicine). 2012. How Can Health Care Organizations Become More Health Literate?: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.