JCAHO Health Literacy Symposium Report

Bob Gore, Public Affairs Director for Californians for Patient Care, one of Cal Lit’s member organizations, forwarded and excellent report of the information shared at the recent JCAHO Health Literacy Symposium held in Chicago, the last week of June, 2006.

Following are some of Mr. Gore’s comments: 

“The symposium was considered by all to be a seminal event, and included presentations from virtually all leading researchers.  You might consider purchasing the symposium binder; also the speaker presentation visuals are supposed to be posted on

http://www.jcrinc.com/publications.asp?durki=4

 Note that adult educators’ insights are particularly prized.

FYI, a few of the headliners and sessions were:

Dennis O’Leary MD, JCAHO president, in his welcoming remarks noted that “communication failure is an underlying factor in 70% of patient deaths and catastrophic events.  There is little evidence of public policy engagement on this issue.”

David Baker MD MPH, principal investigator for the Literacy in Health Care study, said that there is a solid healthcare industry business case for providing health literacy education – fewer inquiries, office visits are that not appreciably longer, greater efficiency, higher patient satisfaction scores and cost avoidance, both in medmal lawsuits and hospitalizations.

Joanne Schwartzberg MD, editor of Understand Health Literacy (AMA books), said she will be completing a comprehensive “health literacy environmental review” for publication this fall.

 Barry Weiss MD of the Partnership for Clear Health Communication and Ask Me 3, cited three studies that connected health literacy education to better patient outcomes.

 Michael Roizen, MD, best-selling author of patient guides, gave an outstanding presentation that essentially said that it is the healthcare profession’s responsibility to make communication clear and worthwhile, but to beware of over-simplification.

 Jerod Loeb, JCAHO research director, presentation on connection between health illiteracy and adverse patient events was another outstanding one, finding that 3% of patients are hurt by medical error and literacy was a key preventive measure.

 Rima Rudd, ScD, and pioneer senior researcher in health literacy at Harvard, made some interesting observations:

• That adult learning educators have the best insights into health literacy programming.

• That human biology should be integrated into literacy programs so that patients can communicate better.

• That healthcare professionals “communicate from a position of power while patients communicate from a position of    vulnerability.”  Meaning, she said, that the professionals are dressed in layers of clothing and authority, while    patients are usually ill and naked underneath a flimsy gown.

• That there are two schools of thought in health literacy:

1.      Test and evaluate everyone, and educate based on need.

2.      The “universal precautions”; that is, assume everyone needs to be communicated with on the 4-6th grade level.

In addition to Schwartzberg’s book, you may also wish to get the HHS Quick Guide to Health Literacy from the agency’s website.”

Mr. Gore and colleague, Kristine Yahn, R.N., will be providing workshops at Cal Lit’s Annual Literacy Conference in Pasadena in October and will be sharing much of the latest information from the field of Health Literacy at that time.)

 For more information you can contact Bob Gore at 916.444.5255