AHRQ has contributed to the development of several frameworks and models for how healthcare systems can address health literacy.

Ten Attributes of Health Literate Health Care Organizations

Health literate healthcare organizations make it easier for people to navigate, understand, and use information and services to take care of their health. The discussion paper, “Ten Attributes of Health Literate Health Care Organizations,” describes what health systems must do to become health literate. Learn about AHRQ tools that can help health systems address the 10 attributes of health literate healthcare organizations here.

Health Literate Care Model

Improving health outcomes relies on patients' full engagement in prevention, decision-making, and self-management activities. Health systems that incorporate health literacy strategies into the Care Model (also known as the Chronic Care Model) make it easier for people to understand and act on available health information. The Health Literate Care Model explains how to tackle that integration. For each of the Care Model’s elements, an updated “health-literate” version includes relevant tools from the AHRQ Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit and maximizes the potential for system change. The Health Literate Care Model represents a practical systems framework for organizations that aspire to address all patients’ health literacy challenges comprehensively, synergistically, and proactively. 

Find the article, “A Proposed ‘Health Literate Care Model’ Would Constitute A Systems Approach To Improving Patients’ Engagement In Care” here.

Visit an interactive graph of the Health Literate Care Model here.

Moving Beyond the Cycle of Costly "Crisis Care"

Navigating the healthcare system is not just a challenge for those who have limited health literacy. Patients are regularly confronted with complicated, confusing forms and instructions. As a result, too many people are hospitalized after being given ambiguous instructions about medications or failing to recognize the symptoms of a worsening condition. A Health Affairs article depicts the costly cycle of “crisis care” and describes how health systems can break the cycle by addressing health literacy.

Access the article “New Federal policy initiatives to boost health literacy can help the Nation move beyond the cycle of costly 'crisis care'” here.


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