Assessing organizational health literacy in hospitals and primary health care services-experiences from the M-POHL project

Abstract

The WHO-Action Network on Measuring Population and Organizational Health Literacy (M-POHL) initiated in 2022 in cooperation with the Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Literate Health Care Organizations working group a project with two main tasks: (1) to translate, culturally adapt and pilot the “International Self-Assessment Tool for Organizational Health Literacy of Hospitals” in as many countries as possible, an instrument which was developed by the “International Working Group Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Literate Health Care Organizations” in 2019, and (2) to develop a self- assessment tool for organizational health literacy (OHL) in primary health care services, building on existing tools and thereafter translate it into further languages, culturally adapt, and subsequently pilot it in different countries. Many countries in the European region have joined the M-POHL OHL project. The objective of the workshop is to inform on the above-mentioned tools and the study protocol used and to present and discuss national experiences regarding the process and results of translation, cultural adaption, and piloting of the tools with a focus on the feasibility and acceptability of the tools, on possible improvements and suggestions to facilitate a broad uptake of the tools in practice. Key message/Impact: The tools for assessing OHL in hospitals and in primary health care services are designed to support management and staff of hospitals and primary health care services to consider, systematically assess, and improve the health literacy responsiveness of their organization to better serve their patients, their local population, and support to their staff to integrate health literacy in their roles in the healthcare system. The expected impact of the proposed session is to increase the awareness of OHL and disseminate the respective tools that facilitate the assessment of OHL. Workshop participants can benefit from the experiences gained in the M- POHL project.