Understanding healthcare info: What are you talking about?
Healthcare information in our everyday lives often falls short of helping people understand their conditions and how to treat their ailments. The same is true for broader health care system information, including lab results and prescription scripts. How often have all of us witnessed inscrutable billing statements and confusing dosing terminology?
It should be a tenet of healthcare communications that they be understood by sixth graders. Why is this so important? Because health literacy is not universal and by failing to compensate for it, our healthcare system undermines access to good care. We cannot help patients if they cannot understand their providers. When the average patient doesn’t know the basics about his condition, the actions to take to spur recovery or maintain health, and what care he must purchase to attain health, the whole system is flawed.
Imagine if you went to your mechanic and he failed to explain in common terms why your car wasn’t working and failed to suggest a repair that was equally mysterious. Imagine if he gave you a bill that failed to describe what the repair was and also neglected to give you concrete advice on how to keep your car in working order. No one would put up with this. So should we accept this kind of failure for something as important as our healthcare? Of course not.
This situation is worse for those who are intimidated by the medical establishment, who must muster the courage to demand clarity from their providers. And those who speak English as a second language may be embarrassed or ashamed to admit not understanding their doctor. When considering how to reform our healthcare system, one major change should include making healthcare communications—from prescription instructions to medical invoices—more accessible to people of all levels of literacy.
Once patients learn the true cost of their healthcare, they can make better shared decisions about their care with their doctors. They would become more empowered patients who could gain a better grasp of how they have been treated. They would understand better their role in reaching and maintaining their health, all the while knowing what they paid for it. At its core, occupying healthcare means making the patient the center of all reform decisions. That can only happen if the patient knows what is going on.
The Comprehensibility Acid Test
Let us set the bar high. Until all our healthcare communications pass the test below, we should continue to occupy healthcare for change.
