UCSF/SFGH report addresses gaps in health literacy

SAN FRANCISCO – A study led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH) has recently reported on attributes that health care organizations should utilize to make it easier for people to better navigate health information, make sense of services, and better manage their own health.

According to senior author Dean Schillinger, M.D., a UCSF professor of medicine and director of the Health Communications Program of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations at SFGH, some 77 million people in the US have difficulty understanding even very basic health information, which clouds their ability to follow doctors’ recommendations. He adds that millions more simply lack the skills necessary to make clear, informed decisions about their own health care.

“Over the last two decades, we have focused on what patients can do to improve their health literacy,” he said. “In this report, we look at the other side of the health literacy coin, and focus on what health care systems can do.”

The report, “Ten Attributes of Health Literate Health Care Organizations” by Cindy Brach, Debra Keller, Lyla M. Hernandez, Cynthia Baur, Ruth Parker, Benard Dreyer, Paul Schyve, Andrew J. Lemerise, and Dean Schillinger was published by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in June 2012.