Improve SDOH Health Literacy

Increasing population health requires education for individuals for when to seek care for themselves or their families.  SDOH health literacy issues create a gap in the urgency and level of care that can be the difference between life and death.  

Healthcare is complex and involves many different levels of care for a patient.  It also requires individuals to engage with a range of generalists and specialists.  Knowing how to interpret health issues and which ones should not only need professional aid but which ones need more immediate assistance.

While SDOH health literacy more commonly impacts minority populations, older adults or medically underserved people.  It can impact everyone.  Patients need to know how to navigate the healthcare system for their unique medical conditions.  Finding providers that are familiar with their languages and cultures can be a common challenge.  Imagine having to make critical medical decisions without fully understanding what your medical professional is telling you.

Patients need assistance with many aspects of getting medical treatments.  This includes filling out paperwork, struggling with English as a language, effective communication with their providers.  In addition, education involving when to see a provider, where to go for medical services.  For instance, when to visit and Emergency Room versus Urgent Care vs a Primary Care provider needs to be reviewed with patients to be sure they understand the role of each to provide care.

Improving SDOH Health Literacy

Steps can be taken by health plans and providers to improve the health literacy of their members and patients.  First, they must understand challenges that each person faces.  This can be tracked in a CRM system by denoting the challenges each person faces.  Then develop a plan that helps increase a person’s knowledge to address their need.  While this can be cumbersome to start, the payoff is huge.  Start with your sickest members or patients, people that have high ER visits for non-ER reasons or people with known communication issues.

 

 

Learn more about Health Literacy