Presentation for the 4th Wisconsin Health Information Outreach Summit – Health LiteracyAugust 11, 2010Panel Discussion of health literacy initiatives1:45 – 2:05 Portage County: Tricia Lee, Kristin Duckart, St. Michael’s Hospital, Ministry, and Sarah Halstead, Portage County Literacy Council2:05 – 2:25 Marathon County: Kitty Switlick, Kay Palmer, Lori Scheller, Jan Kraus, Aspirus, and Bernie Corsten, Marathon County Literacy2:25 – 2:45 Wood County: Eva Scheppa, Family Health Center/Marshfield Clinic and Doug Seubert, Literacy Council of Wood County
2008 – Literacy Council and Saint Michael’s FoundationGroup began to meet in fall of 2008, after PCLC had funding from FoundationMet more regularly in 2009Added “members”
By June of 2009 this is what our coalition looked like
Since 2008 health literacy incorporated into English Language classesTutors also trained to work on this with ELL and ABE students one on onePharmacist visit, field trip to Audiology Dept. at UW, hospital tour, nurse visit
Thanks to a grant from the Saint Michael’s Foundation, PCLC has been incorporating health literacy components into its ELL classes and tutors have been trained to use this with learners.
Fall 2009 – one student was hospitalized and stopped coming to classAll students knew the words “high blood pressure”None knew what it meantHad questions
We began incorporating nutrition lessons to compliment health literacy lessonsNow using Staying Healthy book (WI Literacy grant)Student reported feeling better after eating fruit again
A recent visit to the hospitalComparing words learned in class to those on the sign
Traditional Hmong celebration because student is well againFamily came from all over the countryFruit/Vegetable tray served(white strings were tied to wrists with the wish for continued good health)
…add notes here….
Over 500 guests were served, dental services, haircuts, oil changes, clothing, food, eye exams, basic medical attention
(Less than one year)Recruit additional appropriate members to coalitionPatient educatorsHealth science and health promotion studentsHealth insurance providersMid State Technical CollegeHospital Billing/business office representativesAging and Disability Resource CenterCAP ServicesEducate team members regarding health literacy and research strategiesAsk Me 3AHRQ Questions are the answerIdentify strategies that will lead to success, create work plan and determine how results will be measuredPursue new opportunities to educate public on health literacy topics
Dr. John Vernon of the Department of Health Policy and Management researched the cost to the state of Wisconsin due to low health literacy. According to the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAALS) only 12% of the surveyed adults were judged to have proficient health literacy. Individuals with limited health literacy reported poorer health and were less likely to use preventive care. (Nielsen-Bohlman, Panzer and Kindig, 2004)Individuals with low levels of health literacy were more likely to be hospitalized and have bad disease outcomes. (Baker, et. al., 2002)Inpatient spending increased by approximately $993 for patients with limited health literacy (Howard, 2004)Adults with low literacy have average per capita medical expenditures that are approximately twice (196%) as much as the average cost for the entire population.Low-functional literacy may have been responsible for an additional $32 billion to $58 billion in healthcare spending in 2001. A substantial pat of these expenditures is financed by Medicaid and Medicare. (Friedland, 2002)Estimated anual cost of low health literacy to the U.S. Economy was $106 billion to $238 billion (Vernon et. al., 2007)1.6 million adults in Wisconsin have Basic or Below Basic Health Literacy.Cost to Portage County is more than $1,000 for every person in our county each year! 68,940,866 / 68,744