02/22/2016
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AHRQ
Releases Health Literacy Toolkit for Primary Care Practice
Only 12
percent of U.S. adults have the health literacy skills needed to manage the
demands of our complex health care system, and even these individuals'
ability to absorb and use health information can be compromised by stress or
illness. Experts recommend assuming that everyone may have difficulty
understanding and creating an environment where all patients can
thrive. Like with blood safety, universal precautions should be taken to
address health literacy because we can't know which patients are challenged
by health care information and tasks at any given time. AHRQ’s Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit – 2nd
edition can help primary care practices reduce the
complexity of health care, increase patient understanding of health
information, and enhance support for patients of all health literacy levels.
Additional
tools for improving health literacy:
Learn more about how to improve primary care by visiting
AHRQ’s National Center for Excellence in Primary Care at: http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/systems/primary-care/index.html.
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