The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines health literacy as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.” Health literacy affects people’s ability to navigate the healthcare system, including filling out complex forms and locating providers and services; sharing personal information, such as health history, with providers; engaging in self-care and chronic-disease management; and understanding mathematical concepts such as probability and risk.
Health literacy can pose challenges for both providers and patients. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has recognized these challenges and has published the second edition of their Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit. This toolkit is designed to help primary care practices reduce the complexity of healthcare, increase patient understanding of health information, and enhance support for patients of all health literacy levels.
The toolkit also provides evidence-based guidance to healthcare professionals to ensure that systems are in place to promote better understanding by all patients, not just those thought to need extra assistance. Tools included in the kit help providers improve spoken communication, written communication, and patient self-management/empowerment.
Tool Highlight
Tool #8: Brown Bag Medicine Review—The goal of a Brown Bag Review of medications is to determine what medications patients are taking and how they are taking them. Although many practices conduct medication reconciliation using information in the medical record or as reported by the patient, a Brown Bag Medicine Review is more thorough. The toolkit provides a step-by-step approach to implement the process as well as methods to evaluate its effectiveness.
Follow this link to AHRQ’s website to download the entire Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit as well as the Brown Bag Medicine Review and many other tools to enhance health literacy and patient/provider communications.