Hi all,

I'm glad the topic of money has come up. Yes, it is well documented that 
health literacy (or rather, the lack thereof) is costly. But actual savings 
may be harder, if not impossible, to measure.

In my hospital days as a department manager, it seemed that only the wisest 
leaders were willing to invest in making health literacy improvements as the 
payoffs would be long-term, not immediate.

My ongoing recommendation is that folks doing this work use all 
opportunities to measure the benefits of health literacy. I used to be 
required to do quarterly quality improvement studies. My thinking then, as 
now, is that health literacy interventions are ripe for study.

Just my two cents (so to speak),
~Helen

Helen Osborne, M.Ed., OTR/L
Health Literacy Consulting & Health Literacy Month
www.healthliteracy.com & www.healthliteracymonth.org
helen at healthliteracy.com & 508-653-1199
Speaker, Author, Plain Language Writer & Editor
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Julie McKinney" <julie_mcKinney at worlded.org>
To: <healthliteracy at nifl.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 12:40 PM
Subject: [HealthLiteracy 1583] Wednesday Question: How can HL save $$?



> Hi Everyone,

>

> Money seems to drive everything, doesn't it? We never have enough to do 

> the kind of teaching, intervention, research and training that we hope to 

> do. Also, saving money is often the biggest motivator for supporting 

> projects. In that light, today's question is about how health literacy 

> efforts of various kinds can save money. There has been research showing 

> that patients with inadequate health literacy cost the health system huge 

> amounts of money in longer hospital stays, more frequent emergency room 

> visits and poor management of chronic health conditions.

>

> I know that adult literacy is underfunded, and there is concern about a 

> health literacy bill taking money away. But I want us to bring out all the 

> ways in which improving health literacy (on the part of both patients and 

> health care teams) can save money.

>

> If we can save millions of dollars from implementing good health literacy 

> practices, that money could fund health literacy efforts and adult 

> literacy efforts, which would in turn save more money down the road.

>

> So I invite you all to write in and tell us examples of how good health 

> literacy practices can save money!

>

> Here's an example from NPR (It's only 7 minutes):

>

> Doctor Saved Michigan $100 Million

> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17060374&sc=emaf&sc=emaf

>

> All the best,

> Julie

>

>

>

>

>

> Julie McKinney

> Discussion List Moderator

> World Education/NCSALL

> jmckinney at worlded.org

>

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