Dr Danielle Marie Muscat

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow and Westmead Lead
Sydney Health Literacy Lab

Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Danielle Marie.

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Patient Experience Day Two: Thursday, 1 October 2020

Thursday, March 26th, 2020

1:30 PM The importance of health literacy: improving the way patients understand health information to improve health outcomes

Poor health literacy is closely linked to poor patient experience and health outcomes, yet 60% of health consumers lack the ability to use, understand and adhere to the health information provided. Health literacy is important for healthcare consumers because it affects their capacity to make decisions and take action to manage their health and health care. Hear how the Illawarra Shoalhaven Health District (ISLHD) has taken a governance and systems approach to ensure the information provided is meeting the needs of their consumers, by:

Partnering with consumers to implement a system-wide process to review and develop health information in plain layman terms
Using tools to improve consumer engagement and provide information that is appropriate to their needs via the patient information portal, health literacy ambassadors and change management
Analysing the impact of the organisation-wide approach, which is proven to have improved patient experiences by making patient information easier to understand and use