How to Measure Organizational Health Literacy?

Abstract

Organizational Health Literacy (OHL) is defined as the ability of health organizations to provide services and information that are easy to find, understand and use, to assist people in decision making, and to remove existing barriers to all individuals who are seeking services. OHL is mainly related to communication, navigation, and leadership in organizations, which in turn leads to patient satisfaction, high quality of healthcare, better services for culturally diverse populations and people with disabilities, and risk minimization in healthcare services. Due to its multi-dimensional and complex nature, there are many criteria, ways, and methods for the implementation and evaluation of OHL. Although several measurement tools have been developed in the recent decade, valid and reliable scales are still needed to assess OHL levels in health care organizations. Brief information regarding these methods is presented in this section.