How much thought do you give to health literacy?

It’s Friday afternoon at 4 p.m., and Mr. Anderson walks into my endoscopy suite as the last patient of the day. He’s a 65-year-old publicly-insured male who presents for a screening colonoscopy. He’s 20 minutes late, because he went to registration in the surgery department. He is convinced “looking for cancer” requires surgery. In triage, the nurses learn that he has held his Coumadin for five days as personally instructed by his cardiologist, but that he did not follow instructions for adequate bowel preparation and hence is still passing light brown stool. Upon further questioning, the nurses also learn that he did not understand the mailed educational materials on bowel preparation. Mr. Anderson has to be rescheduled. He’s frustrated. He took time off from work, stopped his Coumadin, and believes his instructions weren’t clear. I’m frustrated too; I’m not sure if Mr. Anderson will return for the necessary screening, and from a recent talk with my administrator I recognize patient satisfaction scores and RVUs are under the microscope. What’s even more frustrating is that this could have been prevented if Mr. Anderson had access to educational materials tailored to those of low health literacy. While Mr. Anderson is a fictional example, this situation is far too common. Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Physician GI Source Type: blogs