Effective communication is an important part of healthcare delivery, and with more than 300 languages spoken in the United States — and 90 million Americans with low literacy — there are challenging cases where it's difficult to communicate appropriately.
Here are five tools on improving communications:
1. The Joint Commission's "Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural and Competence and Patient- and Family-Centered Care" webpage.
2. SpeakUp — a national patient safety campaign with brochures, posters and infographics on preventing errors.
3. "You: The Smart Patient: An Insider's Handbook for Getting the Best Treatment" by Michael F. Roizen, MD, and Mehmet C. Oz, MD.
4. Workgroup on Attributes of Health Literate Organization of the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Health Literacy's "Attributes of a Health Literate Organization."
5. The Joint Commission's "Resources Related to Effective Communication" with additional external resources.