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Overview

Health materials are effective only when used as part of an overall patient education strategy. Simply handing patients a pamphlet or referring them to a website is not enough to promote understanding or behavior change.

Action

Assess patients' learning style and readiness to learn.

• Ask patients how they like to learn and match educational materials to their learning style. For example, you could ask: 
  • "What is the best way for you to learn new things? Do you learn better by reading, looking at diagrams, listening to someone talk, watching a video, or using an interactive program?"
  • "Would you prefer to read something first, or would you rather have me explain the information to you?"
• Make sure that patients are ready to learn. Right after getting a new diagnosis, for example, patients may not be ready for a lot of information. You could ask, "Are you interested in learning more about…."

Review handouts with patients.

• Circle or highlight the most important points as you talk about them.
• Personalize the material by adding the patient's name, medicines, and/or specific care instructions.
• Use teach-back to confirm understanding. Go to Tool 5: Use the Teach-Back Method.
• Emphasize the importance of the material by referring to it during followup phone calls, emails, and office visits. You may need to give the material to the patient more than once.

Ensure patients know how to use audiovisual materials or access the internet.

• If you give patients videos or other audiovisual materials, make sure that they have the appropriate equipment and the know-how to listen to or view the materials. Before directing patients to websites or the patient portal, .
• Always have a conversation with patients after they view audiovisual materials. Decision aids and tutorials can save time but are a supplement to, not a substitute for, a discussion and checking understanding.

Train patients to use the patient portal and to be discerning consumers of internet content.

• Even patients with excellent health literacy skills may have limited computer skills. To ensure that patients are able to access your patient portal, offer training sessions to show patients how to login and retrieve information from the portal. Observe patients using your portal and use the Patient Portal Feedback Form to record how easy or hard it is. Go to Tool 17: Get Patient Feedback for more information about using the form.
• Patients often surf the internet for medical information on their own. You may want to educate them on how to find accurate health information. You can refer them to this from the National Library of Medicine. You can also refer them to trusted health information websites like and .

Obtain patient feedback on materials.

• When following up with patients (Go to Tool 6: Follow Up with Patients), ask whether they found the materials helpful. This can allow you to emphasize the importance of the materials, review any questions patients may have, and obtain input from the patient about the materials provided. Go to Tool 17: Get Patient Feedback for more information about obtaining patient input.

Manage educational materials.

• Monitor and organize any materials you hand out regularly to ensure you know the type and amount of materials you have, can easily locate them, and know when you need to update or re-stock them.
• Assess materials available through your electronic health record (EHR) and patient portal. What is available may change rapidly. (Go to Tool 11: Assess, Select, and Create Easy-to-Understand Materials for information about assessing and selecting easy-to-understand materials). If materials are not easy to understand or act on, work with your vendor to develop strategies to access better materials. If materials are accessed via hyperlinks, check frequently to confirm that the hyperlinks still work.
• Create "information order sets" to make it easy to find the materials you want when needed. For example, you might create an order set of materials to give patients newly diagnosed with a chronic condition or who are starting a new treatment. Information order sets can also be made available through the patient portal.
• Ensure staff know what education materials are available, where they are located (both physically and in the EHR or patient portal), and how to use them effectively. Remind staff on a quarterly basis.

Track Your Progress

Record each time you have run out of materials and each time someone in the office cannot find the materials they need. Every quarter, determine whether your system for managing your educational materials is performing better than in the prior quarter.

Periodically check in with staff and ask if they are using the materials and whether alternative materials are needed.

Have checkout staff look at materials that patients have been given. Record the percentage of materials that have been highlighted or personalized.

Some patient portals can report whether patients have viewed information provided through the portal. Track over time the percentage of patients that view educational materials on your portal and which materials they view.
If you use the Patient Portal Feedback Form, check how patients answered questions #8 and #9.

Before implementing this tool and 2, 6, and 12 months later, collect patient feedback on a selection of questions about this tool from the Health Literacy Patient Feedback Questions.

Refer to Tool 2: Assess Organizational Health Literacy and Create an Improvement Plan to learn how to use data in the improvement process.