Developing a Health Literacy Universal Precautions Tool Kit

Health literacy universal precautions is defined as structuring the delivery of care in the practice as if every patient may have limited health literacy. To institute health literacy universal precautions, a practice will need a coordinated and clear approach for implementation. This project proposes to develop such an approach by compiling the best, evidence-based tools that are in the public domain or made available by copyright holders, and by developing tools to fill gaps where no practice-appropriate tools exist, thereby creating a Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit. This Toolkit will address the following four key areas: 1) communication training and strategies for implementation for the entire practice; 2) system changes required to support consistent and coordinated care; 3) efficient use of educational media; and 4) linkage with community resources when available. Once the Toolkit is developed, a variety of primary care practices (including those primarily serving African-American, Hispanic, and Native American patients) will be approached to evaluate its face validity and feasibility; and modifications will be made based on this feedback. [This is the third Primary Care-Practice Based Research Network (PBRN) project under the (NCN) Consortium.].

Principal Investigator: Philip D. Sloane, M.D., M.P.H.

Scientific Directors: Leigh F. Callahan, Ph.D. and Darren A. DeWalt, M.D.

Funding Source: Agency for HealthCare Policy and Research (AHRQ)

Total Project Period: 04/08 – 01/28/12