Health Literacy Crisis
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HEALTH LITERACY
Remarks by
Lenore Janecek, President
SAVE THE PATIENT

The American Medical Association defines health literacy as the “ability to read, understand, and act on health information.” I define health literacy as a matter of life or death.

How can I make such a dramatic statement, let me tell you briefly about how access to care and understanding the health insurance system determines medical outcome. In my role as a consumer representative on two governmental health boards, providing health benefits through my company, and as a result of my unnecessary surgery two years ago, I became aware of the problems of access for low literate, the disabled, the elderly, and the immigrant populations and what an impact it has medically and psychologically.

SAVE THE PATIENTsm was founded in May, 2001, and was borne out of the need for a non-biased, non-commercial community based non-profit organization to educate, inform, and empower patients in order to make sound health care decisions. Our Health Caring Cards are offered free to the public and are in English, Spanish, Polish, and Chinese. Our educational and community programs, newsletter, and website with links to objective health information fulfills that mission.

Our research found:

The Institute of Medicine Report that in the fall of 2002, 44,000 to 98,000 individuals
DIED from errors committed under the treatment of a licensed physician. More than $17 Billion is wasted each year on medical error.

The National Safety Foundation, as published in the New England Journal of Medicine, reports that 42% of people surveyed say they have been affected by physician error.

Approximately 90 million Americans may have problems with health literacy according to the AMA. National surveys have found that 21% of adults born in America cannot read the newspaper and 48% cannot read a bus schedule.

Patients with low literacy are twice as likely to be hospitalized and twice as likely to report poor health. According to health economists the health literacy problem has cost health systems $73 BILLION annually. Patients with low literacy are at risk for medical errors, increased hospitalizations and poor health outcomes.

According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, many public hospital patients do not understand basic health care information, nor how to fill out forms, enroll in health insurance or apply for Medicaid, use health services correctly, or give informed consent. Most of these forms are written at high school level or higher.

Here are some of the important facts:

Inadequate literacy was an independent risk factor for hospital admission for elderly managed care enrollees, according to the Center for Health Care Strategies.

Those with poor health literacy are more likely to have a chronic disease and less likely to get the health care they need. Emergency room patients with inadequate literacy are twice as likely to be hospitalized as those with adequate literacy.

Here are some ways you can help.

  1. Make sure there is a family member, friend, or advocate who can understand go with the patient and help explain, along with the health professional, what is happening.
  2. Bring insurance card or assist in filling out the Medicaid forms.
  3. Take the Health Caring Cards with you for reference in the language of the patient. Let the health professional know an interpreter is needed, or in the case of a cultural need, whether a female or male caregiver is requested.
  4. Bring a pad of paper with pencil, tape recorder, or other device in order to review what was discussed during the medical encounter.
  5. Take a list of the medications taken, dosage, and health conditions of the patient.
  6. Refer to the Health Caring cards as to what questions to ask. Respect the privacy, rights, and vulnerability of the patient. Ask health professional to speak slowly, use simple terms, repeat, and possibly draw a diagram to explain medical condition or need for surgery, etc.
  7. Ask the patient to restate the instructions in their own words to make sure they understand.
  8. Keep it simple. Remember access to care depends on the ability to communicate insurance or Medicare or Medicaid information

Doctors presume the patient understands what is being said. Those persons with low literacy feel intimidated, lost, shame, confusion, frustration, embarrassment and fear when they are unable to understand or comprehend what is being said.

Health literacy problems affect people from all backgrounds, especially those with chronic illnesses according to the Center for Health Care Strategies, Inc. Older people, non-whites, immigrants, and those with low incomes are disproportionately more likely to have trouble reading and understanding health related information. Access to care and knowledge of the system is compromised.

It has been estimated that l.3 million Americans are injured and at least 400 die from medication error. Side effects from prescription medicines plague one in four patients, and when they surface, most doctors fail to act, according to the New England Journal of Medicine. In preventable cases, 45% were given the wrong drug. In nearly two-thirds of the cases, the side effects persisted because the doctor failed to heed the warning signals. How many of these American are dead or disabled as a result? How many low literate people?


According to a recent New England Journal of Medicine, 1 out of 3 doctors, and 4 out of 10 patients are victims of medical error. In their health report, the Institute of Medicine reports nearly $37 BILLION is spent on medical error, $17 billon spent on PREVENTABLE error. Total lost each year due to medical error and health illiteracy is $100 Billion.

There are barriers to health ACCESS, DIAGNOSIS, and TREATMENT for the low literate populations. Their lives are at risk, and so are ours, if we do not take responsibility for our health through education, information, and empowerment. SAVE THE PATIENT believes many health errors could be eliminated or avoided by ensuring patients exercise their rights, have access to care, come properly prepared during the medical encounter, and have advocates to help them, if needed.

While we help our communities, we help ourselves, and our families to SAVE THE PATIENT. In so doing, THE Life we SAVE may be our own.

For more information on Health Literacy: