Write for Your Healthcare Audience

As you develop written healthcare materials for patients, you need to think about vocabulary and sentence structure, organization of ideas, as well as layout and design elements so that you can eliminate as many unnecessary barriers as possible.

One resource from Harvard School of Public Health, Assessing and Developing Health Materials, explores the components of reading:

• Alphabetics—the process of using letters in an alphabet to represent sounds in the spoken word
• Fluency—ability to read with speed and ease
• Vocabulary—knowledge of the meaning of a word
• Reading comprehension—a language construction process

It also differentiates between beginning, intermediate and advanced readers:

• Beginning—developing skills in sounding out words
• Intermediate—building background knowledge and vocabulary
• Advanced—reading with speed and ease

Use the assessment tools, guidelines and sample materials provided to determine the readability of your writing.

Health literacy is a vital component of reducing hospital readmissions and adverse drug events. Go here to see how atom Alliance works with providers to improve care coordination and how you can get involved.

Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine - Short Form (REALM-SF)

Preview: Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine - Short Form (REALM-SF)
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25.28 KB | Last Updated: February 6, 2015

Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Spanish Adults (SAHLSA-50)

Preview: Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Spanish Adults (SAHLSA-50)
Download

131.77 KB | Last Updated: February 6, 2015

Creating Easy-to-Read Handouts

Preview: Creating Easy-to-Read Handouts
Download

686.93 KB | Last Updated: July 9, 2015

The post Write for Your Healthcare Audience appeared first on atom Alliance.

The Commonwealth Fund Creates eBook for Medicare’s 50th Anniversary

Medicare at 50 Years, an eBook created by The Commonwealth Fund, comprises six in-depth papers about the past, present and future of Medicare, each written by a national expert on Medicare and health policy. Read and share with others:

• Medicare: 50 Years of Ensuring Coverage and Care
• The Affordable Care Act and Medicare: How the Law Is Changing the Program and the Challenges That Remain
• Medicare Payment Reform: Aligning Incentives for Better Care
• Modernizing Medicare’s Benefit Design and Low-Income Subsidies to Ensure Access and Affordability
• Serving Older Adults with Complex Care Needs: A New Benefit Option for Medicare
• Predictable Unpredictability: The Problem with Basing Medicare Policy on Long-Term Financial Forecasting

Also featured is a timeline—50 Years of Medicare: How Did We Get Here?

Go here to learn more and download the eBook.

Contracted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), atom Alliance is a five-year, five-state initiative to ignite powerful and sustainable change in healthcare quality. Formed as a partnership between three leading healthcare consultancies, atom Alliance works throughout Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee to improve quality and achieve better outcomes in health and healthcare and at lower costs for the patients and communities we serve.

The post The Commonwealth Fund Creates eBook for Medicare’s 50th Anniversary appeared first on atom Alliance.

Get a Head-Start on CE Requirements: Seven Free Courses

Summer is here and you may be getting some time to relax. What about taking a couple of free continuing education (CE) courses through HHQI University? Get a few under your belt now rather than waiting until your renewal is due. There are now seven free courses available – all of which include free nursing CEs from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

Available CE Courses:

• NEW! Master the Maze of Blood Pressure Medications
• Fundamentals of Medication Management
• Cardiovascular Health for At-Risk Populations
• Lifestyle Management for Cardiovascular Health
• Tobacco Effects & Cessation Medications
• Blood Pressure Control & Smoking Cessation
• The State of Cardiovascular Health

Click here for the course catalog.

Learn more about how atom Alliance is working with home health agencies to improve cardiac health.

The post Get a Head-Start on CE Requirements: Seven Free Courses appeared first on atom Alliance.

Healthcare Language Simplified

Effective Communication Tools for Healthcare Professionals (formerly Unified Health Communication) is free, on-line training that has helped more than 4,000 healthcare professionals and students improve patient-provider communication.

Take the course any time to improve your ability to communicate with patients and overcome barriers that can keep patients from

• taking their medications as instructed,
• going to the emergency room when they would be better served in primary care or
• preventing them from getting the full benefit of the quality care you provide.

Medically underserved patients may have particular difficulty communicating with their healthcare providers. These tools can help you:

• Acknowledge cultural diversity and deal sensitively with cultural differences that affect the way patients navigate the healthcare system
• Address low health literacy and bridge knowledge gaps that can prevent patients from adhering to prevention and treatment protocols
• Accommodate low English proficiency and effectively use tools that don’t rely on the written or spoken word

Health literacy is a vital component of reducing hospital readmissions and adverse drug events. Go here to see how atom Alliance works with providers to improve care coordination and how you can get involved.

Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine - Short Form (REALM-SF)

Preview: Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine - Short Form (REALM-SF)
Download

25.28 KB | Last Updated: February 6, 2015

Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Spanish Adults (SAHLSA-50)

Preview: Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Spanish Adults (SAHLSA-50)
Download

131.77 KB | Last Updated: February 6, 2015

Creating Easy-to-Read Handouts

Preview: Creating Easy-to-Read Handouts
Download

686.93 KB | Last Updated: July 9, 2015

The post Healthcare Language Simplified appeared first on atom Alliance.

Special CDC Presentation from Internationally Known Health Literacy Expert

Visit CDC’s Health Literacy site to listen to Dr. Rima Rudd, one of the founders of health literacy scholarship and practice in the U.S., speak on the past and current state of health literacy and how to increase organizational capacity for shaping health messages. In this presentation, Dr. Rudd expresses the need to define and develop health literacy environments that support scientific principles, integrate health literacy findings and are conducive to efficacious action!

Dr. Rima Rudd is a health literacy expert who works domestically and internationally. She has been a member of the faculty at Harvard’s School of Public Health in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, for over 25 years. She currently serves on the Health Literacy Roundtable at the National Academy for Medicine [formerly the IOM] and is engaged in research and policy projects in Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, and the U.K. Dr. Rudd is a founder of and leader in health literacy studies and has won multiple awards for her contributions.

The post Special CDC Presentation from Internationally Known Health Literacy Expert appeared first on atom Alliance.

Health Literacy Extends Beyond Reading

Health-literate healthcare organizations are healthcare organizations that make it easier for people to navigate, understand and use information and services to take care of their health.

Health-literate healthcare organizations benefit not only the 77 million Americans who have limited health literacy, but also the majority of Americans who have difficulty understanding and using currently available health information and services.

The IOM Roundtable on Health Literacy: Ten Attributes of Health Literate Health Care Organizations provides the major attributes exemplifying a health-literate healthcare organization. Five of these include:

1. Makes health literacy integral to its mission, structure and operations
2. Integrates health literacy into planning, evaluation measures, patient safety and quality improvement
3. Prepares the workforce to be health literate and monitors progress
4. Includes populations served in the design, implementation and evaluation of health information and services
5. Meets the needs of populations with a range of health literacy skills

Health literacy is a vital component of reducing hospital readmissions and adverse drug events. Go here to see how atom Alliance works with providers to improve care coordination and how you can get involved.

Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine - Short Form (REALM-SF)

Preview: Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine - Short Form (REALM-SF)
Download

25.28 KB | Last Updated: February 6, 2015

Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Spanish Adults (SAHLSA-50)

Preview: Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Spanish Adults (SAHLSA-50)
Download

131.77 KB | Last Updated: February 6, 2015

Creating Easy-to-Read Handouts

Preview: Creating Easy-to-Read Handouts
Download

686.93 KB | Last Updated: July 9, 2015

The post Health Literacy Extends Beyond Reading appeared first on atom Alliance.

New CE Medication Management Course Added to HHQI University

The new course for HHQI University this month is Fundamentals of Medication Management. This course takes a look at three key best practice interventions including:

• Medication Reconciliation
• Medication Adherence
• Medication Knowledge

The session includes reading the Medication Management Focused BPIP, online activities, and an evaluation and post-test. There are 2.0 nursing Continuing Education credits (CEs) approved by the Alabama State Nurses Association. Certificate of attendance is available for all other disciplines.
To learn more go to

http://www.homehealthquality.org/Education/HHQI-University.aspx

The post New CE Medication Management Course Added to HHQI University appeared first on atom Alliance.

New “Bless Your Heart” Toolkit Available to Create/Improve Health Ministries

Faith communities in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee now have access to a new resource to help keep their members healthy. Houses of worship and faith-based organizations in the region may use the free “Bless Your Heart” toolkit to create and improve health ministries.
atom Alliance, a five-state initiative to ignite powerful and sustainable change in healthcare quality, offers the toolkit online as a free download to support the Million Hearts® initiative. That initiative’s goal is to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes by the year 2017.

The toolkit, which is modeled after a successful resource developed in Arkansas, includes

• step-by-step implementation guide
• congregational survey
• Million Hearts fact sheets
• list of electronic resources
• bulletin inserts
• “how to” guides for establishing a garden, planning a successful health fair and
• articles on creating a healthy plate, reducing salt and sodium and the power of positive thinking & prayer.

atom Alliance staff are available to provide technical assistance to churches, synagogues and mosques on how to implement elements of the toolkit and improve members’ cardiac health by promoting the appropriate use of the “ABCS.”

• Aspirin therapy
• Blood pressure control
• Cholesterol management
• Stopping smoking

Bless Your Heart Toolkit

Preview: Bless Your Heart Toolkit
Download

10.09 MB | Last Updated: May 29, 2015

To get your free toolkit visit http://atomalliance.org/download/bless-your-heart-toolkit/

The post New “Bless Your Heart” Toolkit Available to Create/Improve Health Ministries appeared first on atom Alliance.

Explore a New Community Health Worker Toolkit

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has created a new toolkit with evidence-based research that supports the effectiveness of Community Health Worker s (CHWs) in cardiovascular disease prevention. The toolkit includes helpful resources that CHWs can use within their communities.

http://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/pubs/chw-toolkit.htm

The post Explore a New Community Health Worker Toolkit appeared first on atom Alliance.

Keep Moving… Keep Improving!

100,000 older adults will participate in activities at more than 1,000 locations throughout the U.S. on Wednesday, May 27, 2015 as we celebrate the 22nd annual National Senior Health & Fitness Day. The goal is to help keep older Americans healthy and fit. Always set for the last Wednesday in May, National Senior Health & Fitness Day is the nation’s largest annual health promotion event for older adults.

This year’s theme is “If you keep moving…You’ll Keep Improving!” Maintaining our health and fitness is a life-long endeavor and staying active is key. The focus of this year’s observance is to empower seniors to proactively take steps to improve their health and physical fitness regardless of age.

atom Alliance members encourage seniors talk to their healthcare professional about heart health and diabetes prevention and treatment. Get your blood pressure and cholesterol checked. If you smoke, get help to stop. Eat healthy, exercise regularly, and follow your doctor’s instructions about your medications. If you have diabetes, it is important to take an active role in controlling the disease. Get the knowledge and skills to improve your quality of life. Ask your doctor about Diabetes Self-Management Education (DSME) so you can learn more.

Here are some great resources to help you keep moving:

• Medicare Preventive and Screening Services: http://www.medicare.gov/coverage/preventive-and-screening-services.html
• National Senior Health and Fitness Day: http://www.fitnessday.com/senior/index.html
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) Senior Health: http://nihseniorhealth.gov/
• Go4Life – National Institute on Aging at NIH: http://go4life.nia.nih.gov/
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention – Physical Activity: http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/olderadults.html

The post Keep Moving… Keep Improving! appeared first on atom Alliance.