Abstract

Poor health literacy levels directly correlate to poor patient discharge adherence and to an increase in repeat emergency department visits and healthcare costs. In addition, poor health literacy levels are directly correlated to a decrease in patient health outcomes. Studies clearly demonstrate that determining patient health literacy levels can be used to develop appropriate discharge instructions and education that will improve patient adherence and health outcomes, thus reducing emergency department readmissions and healthcare costs.

The purpose of this benchmark project is to implement procedures for consistently obtaining patient health literacy levels, along with language preferences, using the HLS-SF12 and to initiate processes to structure discharge instructions and education according to scored patient health literacy levels. The goal is to improve patient health outcomes, lower healthcare costs, and reduce avoidable emergency room visits.

Date of publication

Spring 4-17-2022

Document Type

MSN Capstone Project

Language

english

Persistent identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10950/3963

Degree

FNP

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