{"id":1370,"date":"2019-10-01T09:56:12","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T13:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sommerconsulti.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=1370"},"modified":"2021-10-28T09:56:27","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T13:56:27","slug":"health-literacys-missing-ramp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sommerconsulting.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/01\/health-literacys-missing-ramp\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Literacy\u2019s Missing Ramp"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6><em>Building a ramp to patient understanding<\/em><\/h6>\n<p>The notion of a hospital being built without any ramps to accommodate patients with limited mobility is absurd. Yet everyday many healthcare communicators \u2013 physicians, insurance providers, pharmaceutical companies, market researchers, etc. \u2013 essentially do just that. We forget to include ramps to patient understanding.<\/p>\n<p>The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) found that only 12 out of every 100 adults in the U.S. have proficient health literacy. The Calgary Charter on Health Literacy defines it as \u201cthe use of a wide range of skills,\u201d that \u201callows the public and [those working in healthcare] to find, understand, evaluate, communicate, and [act on] information\u201d so that we may all \u201clive healthier lives.\u201d These skills include \u201creading, writing, listening, speaking, numeracy, and critical analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although these numbers paint a bleak picture, with most of us \u2013 88 out of 100! \u2013 having only basic to below basic health literacy, they don\u2019t cover the entire canvas. Each one of us is also capable of impressive adaptation. Health communicators can convey information more clearly, without medical jargon and complicated sentences. Patients can, given the right tools, overcome many obstacles to understanding. We truly can be greater than the sum of our parts.<\/p>\n<p>How to go about achieving this lofty goal has been cornerstone to Sommer Consulting\u2019s mission to compassionately move minds and improve lives. We do this by listening to our physician and patient research participants, and by giving voice to those who too often go unheard.<\/p>\n<p>The first step for many remains recognizing the challenge. As a community of healthcare communicators, will you join us in prioritizing health literacy? Help spread the word by using the #HLMissingRamp hashtag. Together we can build a ramp to understanding and ensure that rather than needing to pull themselves up, all patients can simply and easily move forward.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>Bill Stone<\/p>\n<p>Director, Content Strategy<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1303 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/sommerconsulting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/sommer-logo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"164\" height=\"96\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 164px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 164\/96;\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Building a ramp to patient understanding The notion of a hospital being built without any ramps to accommodate patients with limited mobility is absurd. Yet everyday many healthcare communicators \u2013 physicians, insurance providers, pharmaceutical companies, market researchers, etc. \u2013 essentially do just that. We forget to include ramps to patient understanding. The National Assessment of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,21,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-literacy","category-healthcare","category-market-research","post_format-post-format-aside"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sommerconsulting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sommerconsulting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sommerconsulting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sommerconsulting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sommerconsulting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sommerconsulting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sommerconsulting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sommerconsulting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sommerconsulting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sommerconsulting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}