Attributes of Organizational Health Literacy in Health Care Centers in Iran: A Qualitative Content Analysis Study (original) (raw)
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Assessing Organizational Health Literacy at an Academic Health Center: A Quantitative Research Study
2017
Inadequate health literacy is a national health problem that affects about 90 million Americans. Health literacy is the degree to which a person is able to make good health decisions based on his/her ability to read, understand, and use health information and services. Organizational Health Literacy (OHL) is the degree to which an organization considers and promotes the health literacy of patients by providing easy to read, understand, and use health information and services. Since it is difficult to determine which patients have inadequate health literacy, a recommended intervention for addressing health literacy is to use OHL practices at all patient-provider interactions. The purpose of this research study was to assess OHL practices at a large academic health center using criteria found in the ten attributes of a health literate healthcare organization (HLHO). A survey research design was used to collect quantitative data to perform a needs assessment of OHL practices. An online...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
The term organizational health literacy (OHL) is a new concept that emerged to address the challenge of predominantly in patients with limited health literacy (HL). There is no consensus on how OHL can improve HL activities and health outcomes in healthcare organizations. In this study, a systematic review of the literature was conducted to understand the evidence for the effectiveness of OHL and its health outcome, and the facilitators and barriers that influence the implementation of OHL. A literature search was done using six databases, the gray literature method and reference hand searches. Thirteen potentially articles with data on 1254 health organizations were included. Eight self-assessment tools and ten OHL attributes have been identified. Eleven quality-improvement characteristics and 15 key barriers were reviewed. Evidence on the effectiveness of HL tools provides best practices and recommendations to enhance OHL capacities. Results indicated that shifting to a comprehens...
Journal of Health Communication, 2012
Health care organizations, well positioned to address health literacy, are beginning to shift their systems and policies to support health literacy efforts. Organizations can identify barriers, emphasize and leverage their strengths, and initiate activities that promote health literacy-related practices. The current project employed an open-ended approach to conduct a needs assessment of rural federally qualified health center clinics. Using customized assessment tools, the collaborators were then able to determine priorities for changing organizational structures and policies in order to support continued health literacy efforts. Six domains of organizational health literacy were measured with three methods: environmental assessments, patient interviews, and key informant interviews with staff and providers. Subsequent strategic planning was conducted by collaborators from the academic and clinic teams and resulted in a focused, context-appropriate action plan. The needs assessment revealed several gaps in organizational health literacy practices, such as low awareness of health literacy within the organization and variation in perceived values of protocols, interstaff communication, and patient communication. Facilitators included high employee morale and patient satisfaction. The resulting targeted action plan considered the organization's culture as revealed in the interviews, informing a collaborative 56 N. L. Weaver et al. process well suited to improving organizational structures and systems to support health literacy best practices. The customized needs assessment contributed to an ongoing collaborative process to implement organizational changes that aided in addressing health literacy needs.
The Importance of Being Health Literate: An Organizational Health Literacy Approach
According to Parker and colleagues (2003), a silent epidemic affects the health status of most of the American population, that is to say inadequate health literacy. The same is true in European Countries, where -on average -a third of the population is not able to fully understand, appraise and apply health information as well as to appropriately navigate the health care system (HLS-EU Consortium, 2012). Until today, the attention has been mainly focused on the individual determinants of low health literacy, while studies concerning the health literacy environment and the organizational health literacy are uncommon. This paper aims at contributing to fill this gap through an explorative research about the tools health care organizations adopt to improve their hosts' health literacy. Drawing from the international literature DeWalt et al., 2010; Matthew & Sewell, 2002) the main approaches to improve organizational health literacy are outlined. Then, a distinction between formal and informal tools to address organizational health literacy needs is suggested and the effectiveness of both of them is compared. The findings of the research suggest that the latter are more common than the former, although they have lower perceived effectiveness compared with formal methods. Health care organizations seem to be still far from effectively activating comprehensive health literacy pathways. Systemic efforts to acquire awareness of the issue and to put in place effective processes of change towards health literacy are strongly needed.
Organizational health literacy as a determinant of patient satisfaction
Public Health, 2018
Objectives: To assess the organizational health literacy (OHL) of a group of hospitals and investigate the relationships among OHL, patient satisfaction, and patients' health literacy. Study design: This cross-sectional study is conducted in one state hospital, one university hospital, and one private hospital in Istanbul. OHL of the hospitals, patient satisfaction, and health literacy of a sample group of patients were investigated. Methods: OHL data were collected from six managers of each hospital by filling out the 'Health Literate Health care Organizations-10' (HLHO-10) questionnaire during face-to-face interviews. Patient satisfaction and patient health literacy data were collected from representative samples of inpatients in each hospital (n ¼ 491 for the university hospital, 482 for the state hospital, and 486 for the private hospital). The 'Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine' test was used for measuring health literacy. Collected data were analyzed by the SPSS program. Results: The Turkish version of HLHO-10 questionnaire had high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ¼ 0.916). Health literacy and patient satisfaction levels of the university hospital inpatients were significantly higher (P < 0.001) than those of the other hospitals. A high level of OHL was associated with high patient satisfaction. Conclusions: OHL seems to be a significant determinant of patient satisfaction.
Organizational Health Literacy: Quality Improvement Measures with Expert Consensus
HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice, 2019
Background: Organizational health literacy (OHL) is the degree to which health care organizations implement strategies to make it easier for patients to understand health information, navigate the health care system, engage in the health care process, and manage their health. Although resources exist to guide OHL-related quality improvement (QI) initiatives, little work has been done to establish measures that organizations can use to monitor their improvement efforts. Objective: We sought to identify and evaluate existing OHL-related QI measures. To complement prior efforts to develop measures based on patient-reported data, we sought to identify measures computed from clinical, administrative, QI, or staff-reported data. Our goal was to develop a set of measures that experts agree are valuable for informing OHL-related QI activities. Methods: We used four methods to identify relevant measures computed from clinical, administrative, QI, or staff-reported data. We convened a Technical Expert Panel, published a request for measures, conducted a literature review, and interviewed 20 organizations working to improve OHL. From the comprehensive list of measures identified, we selected a set of high-priority measures for review by a second expert panel. Using a modified Delphi review process, panelists rated measures on four evaluation criteria, participated in a teleconference to discuss areas of disagreement among panelists, and rerated all measures. Key Results: Across all methods, we identified 233 measures. Seventy measures underwent Delphi Panel review. For 22 measures, there was consensus among panelists that the measures were useful, meaningful, feasible, and had face validity. Five additional measures received strong ratings for usefulness, meaningfulness, and face validity, but failed to show consensus among panelists regarding feasibility. Conclusions: We identified OHL-related QI measures that have the support of experts in the field. Although additional measure development and testing is recommended, the Consensus OHL QI Measures are appropriate for immediate use. [HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2019;3(2):e127-e146.] Plain Language Summary: The health care system is complex. Health care organizations can make things easier for patients by making changes to improve communication and to help patients find their way around, become engaged in the health care process, and manage their health. We identify 22 measures that organizations can use to monitor their efforts to improve communication with and support for patients.
Word Count: 438 Body Word Count: 7,643 ABSTRACT Health literate health care organizations facilitate the engagement and navigation of patients and families within their system to promote the understanding and use of health information and services to improve health care. Recently, a work group sponsored by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Health Literacy Roundtable identified 10 attributes of a health literate organization. These 10 attributes of organizational health literacy (OHL) provide a guide for health care
How to Measure Organizational Health Literacy
Health Literacy - Advances and Trends, 2023
Organizational Health Literacy (OHL) is defined as the ability of health organizations to provide services and information that are easy to find, understand and use, to assist people in decision making, and to remove existing barriers to all individuals who are seeking services. OHL is mainly related to communication, navigation, and leadership in organizations, which in turn leads to patient satisfaction, high quality of healthcare, better services for culturally diverse populations and people with disabilities, and risk minimization in healthcare services. Due to its multi-dimensional and complex nature, there are many criteria, ways, and methods for the implementation and evaluation of OHL. Although several measurement tools have been developed in the recent decade, valid and reliable scales are still needed to assess OHL levels in health care organizations. Brief information regarding these methods is presented in this section.