Building Health Literate Organizations
The Health Literacy Discussion List announces a new resource…
Building Health Literate Organizations: A Guidebook to Achieving Organizational Change describes how organizations can move forward in achieving the attributes described in the Institute of Medicine discussion paper, “Ten Attributes of Health Literate Health Care Organizations”. The guidebook:
- helps health care organizations of any size engage in organizational change to become health literate.
- complements many excellent health literacy resources, helping organizations use them effectively and reliably.
The guidebook contains chapters and a case study on key health literacy development areas that intersect with the attributes of health literate health care organizations:
- Engaging leadership
- Preparing the workforce
- The care environment
- Involving populations served
- Verbal communication
- Reader-friendly materials
Each chapter answers these questions:
- Why? Why do you need to address health literacy issues in this area? Why is it important?
- What? What would success in this area look like? What are the target outcomes? Success may include changes to process, behavior, and attitudes, as well as health outcomes.
- How? What tools, resources, and actions will you use to reach the target outcomes?
The guidebook offers an approach that enables organizations to start where they can begin to build a pattern of success, expanding to more than one area, eventually working in all key areas for results that can be sustained.
Building Health Literate Organizations: A Guidebook to Achieving Organizational Change, authored by Mary Ann Abrams, Sabrina Kurtz-Rossi, Audrey Riffenburgh, and Barbara Savage, is available at www.healthliterateorganization.org.
[Post originally shared on the IHA Health Literacy Discussion List, August 5, 2014]