Putting metrics behind how well (or poorly!) you communicate

We're AMA certified! That sounds good to read aloud. A few weeks ago I went to Chicago for two days of rigorous training at the American Medical Association WORLD HEADQUARTERS(!!!) to become one of ten nation-wide certified vendor-consultants offering their communication assessment of hospitals and clinics.

The assessment that we now offer, called the Communication Climate Assessment Toolkit (CCAT), measures 9 domains that contribute to effective patient-provider communication and are strongly correlated to patient reported quality of care and trust in the healthcare provider. Expectations in each domain were developed considering overall importance, feasibility of implementation, and potential for measurement. Hospitals and clinics who bring Health Literacy Forward in to facilitate the CCAT receive validated scores, comparisons to national averages, and QI consultation in each of the following domains: 

• Leadership commitment   
• Information collection
• Community engagement
• Workforce development
• Individual engagement
• Cross-cultural communication
• Language services
• Health literacy
• Performance evaluation

Learn more about CCAT at the AMA Ethical Force Website or just give me a call!

What's more, seven of the above nine domains were recently endorsed by the National Quality Forum (NQF) as leading measures of health disparities and cultural competency. This is BIG NEWS!! Check out the press release from NQF to learn more.


If you're wondering what the heck all this Health Literacy Forward talk is recently...I wrote this short summary just for you!

Health Literacy Forward, a program of the Literacy Coalition of Central Texas, provides quality improvement consulting and trainings for hospitals and clinics around effective health communication. While 75% of preventable readmissions result from miscommunication, Health Literacy Forward, a certified vendor-consultant of the American Medical Association, helps healthcare agencies reduce preventable readmissions, ensure compliance with accreditation and regulatory requirements, and improve patient-safety and reported quality of care. 

Health Literacy Forward Pitch - Tune in, venture capitalists!

Here at the Literacy Coalition, we are in the midst of launching a business. Yeah, that's right. A genuine, money-making, corporate world, big$$, for-profit business. In my next post, I'll write more about why I think it's so important for us, the non-profit world, to step outside of our just-scraping-by, begging-for-money, throw-us-a-bone silo, and start finding new ways to become sustainable. But for now, check out this pitch I did at the RISE Austin Social Innovation Fast Pitch Competition. This was a "rough draft" version that I used while practicing...so bear with me as I stumble over a few words and speak a little too quickly. Check it out! 

Check out our health literacy page on the website to learn more!

Or follow me on twitter!