Health Literacy Patients as Partners Efforts in Primary

Health Literacy & Patients as Partners: Efforts in Primary Care in BC Connie Davis, MN, ARNP cld@conniedavis. ca with thanks to the faculty and teams of the Health Literacy in Communities Prototype Collaborative

Patients as Partners – BC definition Patients, families and caregivers are partners in health care when they are supported and encouraged to : ü ü participate in their own health care participate in decision making about that care participate at the level they choose participate in quality improvement and health care redesign in ongoing and sustainable ways

Patients as Partners Priorities 2008 -2011 Individual Health Care Shaping the Primary Health Care System Bringing in the Community

Foundation for Selfmanagement support Self-management Support Patient Activation Cultural Humility Health Literacy

In the next 15 minutes…. • Describe health literacy efforts in primary care in BC – Knowledge, Skills, Strategies – Successes – Challenges – Resources & Tools • Recommendations

Primary Care Efforts • Health Literacy in Communities Prototype Collaborative • Practice Support Program – Assessment – Learning module • Refugee health

Theory • Pragmatic science • Quality improvement – Will, Ideas, Execution – Model for Improvement • What are we trying to accomplish? • How will we know that a change is an improvement? • What changes can we try that might result in improvement • Plan-Do-Study-Act

Health Literacy in Communities Prototype Collaborative a Improvement Journey I think we can! Changes we can make to improve health literacy Ensure Understanding Build Relationships Partner Community A P D S D A P S P D A P S D A S P D A S A P S D Improved Health Literacy What we can measure: Info Sharing, Values/Prefer. Medication Taking, Confidence ask questions…

The Health Literacy Umbrella Health Problems & Risks Relationships Understanding Better Developed by the Health Literacy in Communities Prototype Faculty: Connie Davis, Kelly Mc. Quillen, Irv Rootman, Leona Gadsby, Lori Walker, Marina Niks, Cheryl Rivard, Shirley Sze, and Angela Hovis with Joanne Protheroe, July 2009. IMPACT BC. Partnering Health

Experience of office practices improving health literacy 6 month collaborative with 4 prototype teams serving immigrant, urban, rural and First Nations populations These materials were developed in collaboration with IMPACT BC in connection with the Health Literacy in Communities Prototype Collaborative.

Measuring Improvement at Burnaby Office Practice Site Burnaby Health Literacy Prototype team, Dec 2009, Dr James Hii, jameshii@telus. net

Data from Dec 2008 -Nov 2009

Data for Past Two Years

Examples of what the teams did: • • • Agenda setting tool-Gitsegukla Provider orientation video-Gitsegukla Teach-back-all teams Plain Language-all teams Health Literacy Walk through-Burnaby and Victoria

Practice Support Program • Health literacy now in self-assessment for primary care physicians • Health literacy included in all efforts, and emphasized in a module on selfmanagement support, group medical visits and health literacy

Refugee Health • Contact Dr Lynn Farrales • www. practicalmedicine. ca

Recommendations • People have to “get it. ” Video and personal stories seem to work best. • Emphasize practical, doable steps that have been shown to work – Teach back – Medication review – Plain language tips – Usability testing • Link to existing efforts

Tools and Resources Universal Precautions Health Literacy Toolkit http: //www. ahrq. gov/qual/literacy/ Plain Language Service www. plainlanguage. mb. literacy. ca/resource. htm Health Literacy Missouri www. healthliteracymissouri. org Health Literacy Listserv AMA Health Literacy Video (viewable on-line)