Group Health Cooperative scored above regional average in 11 of 15 quality measures

July 20, 2009 — 6:00 am

SEATTLE – Group Health Cooperative medical centers received “above regional average” scores in 11 out of 15 quality measures in the Puget Sound Health Alliance Community Checkup. Group Health received more “above regional average” ratings than any of the other nine medical groups in the Puget Sound region that were rated on all 15 measures in the July report. Group Health received no “below regional average” scores.

“We support the work of the Puget Sound Health Alliance to provide transparency for quality of care in this region,” said Michael Soman, chief medical executive for Group Health Medical Centers. “We are pleased to be one of the leaders in innovative approaches to care, but recognize that we all have work to do. We take seriously, and are excited about, the opportunities we have to improve.”

The Puget Sound Health Alliance is a non-profit, non-partisan regional collaborative working to improve health care quality and affordability. The Community Checkup compares care in doctors’ offices and hospitals, highlighting where performance is high or improvement is needed. The report measures care in the use of antibiotics and imaging, asthma, depression, diabetes, heart disease, prevention, and generic drugs. (more…)

From slam poetry to plain language for health care

July 6, 2009 — 4:34 pm

Group Health editor shares toolkit to boost health literacy

See Jessica preform some of her slam poetry

SEATTLE—The doctor’s mouth opens, and “medicalese” pours forth: words like “pyrosis” and “myocardial infarction.” The patient’s eyes glaze over. If only the doctor said “heartburn” or “heart attack,” the patient could learn what caused the chest pain.

This failure to communicate is all too familiar. In 2005, Jessica Ridpath noticed it happening when health care researchers asked people to consider taking part in studies.

“Informed consent means people understand what they’re agreeing to,” said Ridpath. “But most consent forms are too complex for the reading abilities of the people they’re supposed to inform.” A slam poet and language lover, Ridpath is the research communications coordinator at Group Health Center for Health Studies. She just published her first article in the July/August American Journal of Health Promotion.

Ridpath worried that unreadable consent forms were hindering informed decision making—and raising risks for participants and research institutions alike. So four years ago she created the Project to Review and Improve Study Materials, or PRISM. Her article describes how PRISM evolved. First it was a short-term internal training initiative to boost consent form readability. Since then, PRISM has expanded into an enduring suite of hands-on resources. It includes a customizable training workshop and an editing service. Its centerpiece is a Toolkit that illustrates strategies for communicating clearly in written materials for study participants, such as informed consent documents, study invitations, letters, and information sheets.

The Toolkit is based on plain language—a communication style centered on the audience’s needs and abilities. Researchers can see how to use plain language in study materials through the Toolkit’s many concrete examples, including an alternative word list. Here’s a brief excerpt:

Instead of:                  Try this:

Abdomen                     Stomach, tummy, belly

Abrasion                      Scrape, scratch

Absorb                         Take in fluids, soak up

Abstain from                Don’t, don’t use, don’t have, go without

Accomplish                 Carry out, do

Accrue                         Add, build up, collect, gather

You can download a free PDF of the Toolkit at www.centerforhealthstudies.org/capabilities/readability/readability_home.html. (more…)