Eyeworld

July 2017 • Ophthalmology Business 19 report, is defined as, "The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions." The inability to do so, whether based on the issue of health literacy or the use of technical medical terms, jargon, or so-called "medspeak," 5 can not only result in confusion, but it can present a patient safety issue, said Patricia McGaffigan, RN, MS, former chief operating officer and senior vice president of programs, National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF), Boston, and vice president of safety programs, Institute of Health- care Improvement (IHI), Cambridge, Massachusetts. An exercise in which under- graduate medical students translated medical documents to plain lan- guage resulted in them being more likely to use plain language during simulated patient encounters. 6 Bittner et al. wrote that such trans- lation activities could be used as a technique to improve plain language communication skills. The IHI/NPSF has a free health literacy and educational program, Ask Me 3, to facilitate better com- munication and understanding of health conditions among patients' families and providers: 1. What is my main problem? 2. What do I need to do? 3. Why is it important for me to do this? Ms. McGaffigan said this struc- tured communications program is intended for patients and families to use in healthcare encounters, and is equally intended for providers to guide conversations with patients in a clear and systematic manner. Dr. Marks said he provides patients with the opportunity to communicate back to him what they understand, but does so in a way that's not condescending. "A great phrase to use with a patient is, 'I've given you a lot of in- formation today that would be hard for almost anyone to understand. When you get home and speak to your husband, tell me what you're going to tell him about your day's visit,'" he said. If "medspeak" is an issue, so is "no speak." Ms. McGaffigan had one such experience herself in the emer- gency department a few months ago. continued on page 20

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