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Prescription Literacy White Paper: A Review of the Problem and Recommendations
Making a Business Case for Health Literacy: A Template
Statewide Informed Consent Process: Background and Recommendations for Health Care
The Minnesota Health Literacy Partnership (MHLP) endorses the Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety (MAPS) informed consent policy. Click here to read our endorsement letter.
Following is a list of organzations involved in the partnership.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota
Activities: Hour and hour-and-a-half health literacy trainings based on the AMA package.
Audience: Providers, county public health workers, employer and community groups.
Availability/Cost: No fee at present.
Contact: Alisha Ellwood, 651-662-0986
Dakota County Public Health
Activities:
- Provider visits/education by Child and Teen Checkups (C&TC) workers to remind them of changing demographic of area, need for clear communication in Spanish and other languages, promote use of interpreters.
- Provide health care/dental care materials in Spanish.
- Community outreach by Spanish-speaking C&TC worker at community fairs, Spanish-speaking churches
- Emergency Communication Health Outreach (ECHO) for limited-English audience on C&TC, schools, school safety.
- Nurse visits to residents at which medication or other confusing health issues are explained in clear language.
Audience: Health care providers, including dentists, county residents and patients
Availability: Dakota County residents. ECHO materials undertaken with a multi-county collaborative. Contact: Laura Fitzsimmons, 952-891-7892, laura.fitzsimmons@co.dakota.mn.us
Fairview Health Services
Activities:
- Establishing formal policies for producing patient education materials at an appropriate reading level, setting standards for formatting and type use that enhance readability. Policies apply to English and translated materials.
- Working with in-house legal department to produce legally required forms in readable language.
- Working with Fairview departments that send informational material to patients to assure that material is clearly written and presented.
- Education of Fairview leadership on link between patient safety and clear communication.
Audience: Patients, providers, managers. Availability: Preparing Powerpoint presentation on techniques to improve communication. Could be available to audiences outside Fairview. Contact: Lane Stiles, 612-672-4224, lstiles1@fairview.org
Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare
Activities:
- Training for staff using AMA/Ask Me 3 materials.
- Developed picture/point material in laminated binder to use with patients to communicate basic ideas of day-to-day hospital life, such as, “I’m in pain,” or, “I have to use the bathroom.”
Audience: Providers and patients. Availability: In-house. Contact: Laurie Porter, 651-229-3938, lporter@gillettechildrens.com
International Institute of Minnesota
Activities:
- Refugee mentoring. Cultural orientation includes health information, field trip to clinic to demonstrate practical aspects of getting medical treatment.
- ESL classes in which teachers answer questions about health systems and options.
- Nursing assistant certification courses for speakers of Somali, Amharic, Oromo, Hmong and other languages. Training is combined with ESL courses to provide refugees/immigrants with language skills and career path. With additional training, nursing assistants could provide basic health education to non-English speakers as they room patients.
- Medical career advancement.
Audience: Refugees, asylees, immigrants. Availability: Trained nursing assistants available to be hired by larger health care organizations. Contact: Barbara Stone, Refugee Mentoring Program coordinator, 651-647-0191, x 348, bstone@iimn.org
Medica
Activities: Recently developed “Walking in their Shoes,” a free kit for trainers at Medica participating hospitals and clinics. This train-the-trainer kit includes presentations, interactive activities, and resource guides aimed to refresh and enhance health literacy and cultural competency skills. The program is built for easy customization, and includes ready-to-go PowerPoint slides, class exercises and supporting handouts. Modules include: “The Challenge of Health Literacy: What Health Care Providers Need to Know,” and, “Working Effectively with Human Differences: Improving Cross-Cultural Understanding.” Audience: Anyone in the healthcare field who has direct patient contact. This training is designed to promote critical thinking about patient interactions and is intended for both clinical and administrative staffs. Contact: E-mail to providercollege@medica.com or call Megan Severson at 952-992-2764.
Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety (MAPS)
Activities: Sponsored a health literacy train-the-trainer program, with further sponsorship of organizations that offered to do this work. Audience: Minnesota health care providers. Contact: Julie Apold, Patient Safety Registry Manager, Minnesota Hospital Association, 651-603-3538, japold@mnhospitals.org
The Multilingual Health Resources Exchange
Activity: Online database of translated health education materials, searchable by topic, language, topic and language, or keywords. Links section includes connections to more online libraries of translated materials, cultural competence sites, and guides to creating easy-to-read materials. Audience: Health care providers, interpreters, social service providers. Availability/Cost: Available to member organizations for an annual fee. Fee waived for sponsored community organizations. Contact: Patricia Ohmans, coordinator, 651-489-4238, pohmans@healthadvocates.info
Neighborhood Healthcare Network
Activities:
- Interpreters in ten languages available every day.
- Disease/language specific groups regularly conducted by health educators.
- Demonstration project using health education videos on Palm Pilots for viewing while patients wait in the exam room. Private and personal opportunity to view culturally appropriate materials on family planning, diabetes, depression. Targeted to English, Somali and Hmong speakers.
- Staff training sessions in cultural competence, use of interpreters
Audience: Providers, patients. Availability: In-house, but staff members also provide external training. Contact: Amy Shellabarger, 612-638-0746, shell008@umn.edu
Portico Healthnet
Activities: One-on-one care management and patient education on finding health care coverage and navigating health care systems. Audience: Participants in Portico coverage program. Includes Latinos, Hmong, Somalis and others. Availability: Participants only, though seminars may be open to others. Contact: Jennifer Ditlevson, 651-603-5115, jditlevson@porticohealthnet.org
Stratis Health
Activities:
- Health literacy Program to Go (includes slides and speaker notes to provide a one-hour in-service presentation, in conjunction with the AMA video. Packe includes sample agenda, evaluation and handouts.
- Cadre of Stratis Health staff available on a limited basis to lead group training and eeducation sessions (primarily at conferences and large group sessions).
Audience: Health care providers state-wide, across the care continuum. Availability: Program to Go is free, and available on the Stratis Health website at www.stratishealth.orgContact: Mary Beth Dahl, 952-853-8546, mdahl@stratishealth.org
On the Web
AMA Foundation Health Literacy Kit
Website Content: The Health Literacy: Help Your Patients Understand Educational Kit is the AMA Foundation's primary tool for informing about health literacy. It includes:
- a documentary and instructional video
- an in-depth manual for clinicians (PDF)
- Continuing Medical Education credit
- learning objectives for this education program are:
- to understand the full scope of health literacy
- to recognize health system barriers faced by patients with low health literacy
- to improve verbal and written communications to patients
- to create a "shame-free" environment for patients
- additional resources for education and involvement
Audience: Physicians, health care professionals and patient advocates. Availability/Cost: $35 through the AMA Bookstore or by calling (800) 621-8335. (If you're calling, mention AMA Bookstore Item #0P221002.) URL: www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/9913.html
California Health Literacy Initiative
Website Content:
- Plain language health information
- Health literacy training, consultation and resources
- Multicultural, multilingual health information
- Health literacy research and publications
- What is health literacy/who’s who in health literacy
- US health literacy policy, models and publications
Audience: Providers, literacy practitioners, adult literacy and ESL students. Availability/Cost: Free on the web. URL: www.cahealthliteracy.org
Council of State Governments
Website Content:
- State Official’s Guide to Health Literacy, an overview of how health literacy affects states.
- Health Literacy Tool Kit, four issue briefs that examine different ways to address health literacy, including through Medicaid programs, improved health education and communication, and through working with adult learners.
Audience: Public program and education workers. Availability/Cost: State Official’s Guide available through online store at $40; Tool Kit available for $15 or in a free PDF download. Order through 1-800-800-1910, by emailing sales@csg.org, or at www.csg.org.CSG/Policy/health/health+literacy/default.htmURL: www.csg.org
Institute for Healthcare Advancement
Website Content: Description and ordering information for What to Do… series that includes booklets to purchase on having a baby, when your child gets sick, teen health, senior health, and healthy teeth in Spanish and English. Audience: Consumers, trainers. Availability/Cost: Booklets for $12.95, training packages for $39.95. URL: www.iha4health.org
Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved
Website Content: Publishes information on the health of, and health care for, low income and other medically underserved communities. Issues dealt with include access to, quality of, and cost of health care. Audience: Health care practitioners, policy makers, and community leaders who are in a position to effect change. Availability/Cost: Index and excerpts available on the web, with full text available through subscribing libraries. URL: muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_health_care_for_the_poor_and_underserved/
Massachusetts General Hospital
Website Content:
- Guide to working with interpreters
- Interactive map of the world that provides information by country on languages spoken, cultural values, main religions and death concepts, health care values, diet and “interesting facts.”
- Point-to-talk booklets in 19 languages.
Audience: Providers Cost: Free on the web. URL: www.massgeneral.org/interpreters/cultural.asp
Partnership for Clear Health Communication
Website Content: AskMe3 health literacy resources downloadable in English and Spanish. Audience: Providers, patients, large-scale implementers. Availability/Cost: Free on the web. URL: www.askme3.org
Pfizer’s Clear Health Communication Initiative
Website Content:
- Clear Health Communication Initiative Compendium, a downloadable collection of solutions and tools to address health literacy.
- Strategies to Help Low Literate Patients, another downloadable resource.
- Pfizer Principles for Clear Health Communication Handbook in downloadable form.
- Information on Fry Readability Testing.
Audience: Providers Cost: Free on the web. URL: www.pfizerhealthliteracy.com
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