A Health Literate Care Model: The Transformation Experience of Taipei City Hospital

Kang-I Chao ； Shih-Chih Wang ； Tsun-Cheng Huang ； Lin-Chung Woung ； Oscar K Lee ； Dachen Chu ； Chao-Mei Chu ； Chia-Jen Liu ； Sheng-Jean Huang

《第六屆亞洲健康識能國際會議》 預刊文章 Pp. 1-2

https://doi.org/10.6881/AHLA.201810.SI03

摘要

According to the World Health Organization, ＂health literacy＂ represents knowledge of health possessed by an individual and the capability to implement the knowledge when adopting health promotion actions. However, many people, including medical professional, often have misunderstood the definition of health literacy; it does not equal to health education. It is about empowerment; in fact, it improves people's literacy ability in health-related information, so they can have the capability to become healthier. Taipei City Hospital is not only a city hospital that has the responsibility to take care of its citizen’s health, but also a health promotional hospital that helps the citizens to improve their health literacy. In this study, 10 different aspects were used to determine the current health literacy promotion status of Taipei City Hospital, and the unique way that Taipei City Hospital uses to train its employees to make the whole hospital including the systems and providers to become more health literate are also described in the research. When training the employees, health professionals are not the only internal target group that will be trained, but every professional including the administrative staff will all be trained in health literacy improving programs. One must, especially for the medical professionals, be health literate in order to be aware of and identify people with low health literacy. The three key components for the Taipei City Hospital when promoting health literacy are desire, knowledge, and ability; using communication skill to help people finding the desire to be healthier, pass them the knowledge, and show them the way to execute it. The Taipei City Hospital contributes its effort in the promotion of health literacy and strengthens citizens' self-healthcare and health promotion. With the effective health literacy training program, the employees of the Taipei City Hospital have better health communication ability to complete their jobs and responsibility with efficiency. As a result, the patients' health literacy ability can be improved, and it will lead to a win-win result for health literacy promotion.

關鍵字

Health literacy ； health communication ； health promotional hospital