IHA Institute for Healthcare Advancement

The Institute for Healthcare Advancement's
Health Literacy Rewrite / Redesign Service

The Institute for Healthcare Advancement is pleased to offer its Health Literacy Rewrite / Redesign Service, available to those who publish and/or distribute healthcare education materials.

Overview

Research has clearly demonstrated that most health education materials handed out to patients are written at a grade level well beyond the recipient's ability to understand and use them. About half of the adult population in the United States may have difficulty reading above a 5th-grade level. And only about 12% of the U.S. adult population possess "proficient" health literacy skills.

Why you need this service

You need this service because, unless you have reviewed and revised your patient education handouts for literacy levels and visual/graphic suitability, your materials, like most others, are written at a 9th to 12th grade reading level (or higher).

And if this is the case, then you need this service because your patients need you to have this service. Materials that cannot be understood do not help. They are likely disregarded or thrown away (or even worse, misinterpreted).

If you think through the potential costs of NOT rewriting and/or redesigning your materials, the cost of using this service may seem much less. Researchers at the University of Connecticut in 2007 noted that as much as $236 billion is spent unnecessarily each year in the United States because of poor health literacy, or the inability of people to obtain, process, and understand basic health information.

What we can do for you

We offer an initial, complimentary evaluation of one of your pieces of written patient education pieces. We will let you know at what grade level your materials test out, and how it scores on a scale that determines its suitability for a general audience. After this evaluation, we will provide a quote for services if needed, and tell you exactly what we will do. These services include any or all of the following:

Rewriting your materials so they are easy to read and understand
Design recommendations so your materials are more inviting and useful
Redesign/graphic services so they are print-ready
Translate and test materials in different languages
Obtain print bids and oversee production

Why we are a good choice

Principals at the Institute for Healthcare Advancment have assembled a team of writers and designers who have worked in health literacy, education, publishing, and graphic design, and who intimately understand the issues of health literacy. Among our credentials:

We produce a health literacy conference each year for healthcare professionals (2012 is our 11th conference) to teach them how to do this.
We write and publish a series of self-help health books, "What To Do For Health," written at a 3rd to 5th grade reading level. This series has sold 4 million copies to date.
Our principals have written dozens of articles in peer-reviewed journals and lectured nationally on health literacy.
Two of our principals, Gloria Mayer, RN, Ed.D, FAAN, and Michael Villaire, MSLM, are authors of the text, Health Literacy in Primary Care: A Clinician's Guide.

Call us today at (800) 434-4633 to discuss your needs and how we can help you meet them. We are a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, and health literacy is part of our mission to "Empower people to better health."