When a patient visits a health care provider or is an inpatient at the hos­pital, a factor in how well the patient will recuperate from illness and comply with follow-up care is how well he or she understands the diagnosis, treatment plans and discharge instructions. Just as important to the patient’s care experience is that nurses, physicians and other clini­cians know where to find the resources to support patients and empower them to better manage their care and avoid readmission to the hospital.

Improving patient education and health literacy—the ability to read, understand and act on health informa­tion—is a priority across the Johns Hopkins Health System. After all, health literacy impacts readmissions, patient and provider satisfaction, and the cost of care, says Tom Bauer, senior director of patient education for the health system.

Bauer is leading the charge to provide staff members and patients with easy-to-access and easy-to-understand resources. His work is supported by the Patient Education Operations Committee— which includes representatives from the hospitals—and feedback from the patient and family advisory councils.

“What we’ve done is work to create a comprehensive repository of written and video education for our patients and health care professionals,” Bauer says. “Now we are creating ways to easily ac­cess these materials so that our patients can prepare themselves for visits and help make better decisions about their health care.”

Bauer and Deborah Sherman, assistant director of nursing for clinical informat­ics, recently spearheaded an education blitz in March across the health system to increase staff awareness of patient education resources—such as tool kits, PowerPoint presentations, and tips and tricks—and how to access them.

Staff members got practice accessing treatment plans and videos about health conditions from the patient education tab on Epic, the electronic medical record system. Additionally, nurses educated pa­tients using methods such as “teachback,” in which they ask the patient to repeat what they’ve been told.

The result, Bauer says, was a 20 percent increase in use of videos 30 days after the blitz and 28 percent the following month. The use of written materials increased by 183 percent.

Stacey Danielczyk, a nurse educator who championed the initiative in The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Department of Surgery, was one of the many staff members who were engaged in the effort. She is the department’s liaison to patient education committees and creates the lesson plans and processes for the staff and super-users to expand knowledge of patient education resources they can use in their daily practice.

The blitz identified two critical needs: more resources to teach patients how to manage their surgical drains at home, and to document the teaching, Danielczyk says. “As a group, we developed a stan­dard teaching that not only incorporates videos and handouts but guides staff to key teaching elements,” she says. The health system operations committee has approved the plan and it will be incorpo­rated in Epic.

Julie Kreif, a safety and quality officer for the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation who makes sure the patient educa­tion material is understandable, also participated in the blitz.

“You know that your time is very limited and you really need to rely on the education to help the patient carry over what they’ve learned, so that they can continue to make progress and work towards the goal,” Kreif says. “It’s important that we think about how we make sure the patient and family have understood since the patient’s next setting could be the home, a nursing home or an outpatient setting.”

Bauer encourages staff members to review the resources on the patient educa­tion page at intranet.insidehopkinsmedi­cine.org/patient-family-care/patient-care/ patient-education.html. If you cannot locate educational materials that meet your needs, complete the request form at intranet.insidehopkinsmedicine.org/pa­tient-family-care/patient-care/request-ma­terials.html or contact Bauer at tbauer9@ JHMI.edu for assistance.