Abstract

The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project was to explore the relationship between health literacy levels and readmission rates and patient satisfaction scores. The medical-surgical unit in the studied community hospital had higher-than-expected readmission rates for patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and decreased scores for patient satisfaction with nurse communications. In patients with (P) CHF and COPD admitted to the fifth-floor medical-surgical unit, does a (I) two-tiered health literacy algorithm used by nurses decrease CHF and COPD readmission rates by 5% and improve patient communication scores by 5% compared (C) with current patient education methods in a (O) 10-week period? During the project, the Short Assessment of Health Literacy-English (SAHL-E) was used at the bedside with patients meeting the inclusion criteria. This project took place over a 10-week implementation period that allowed for a 4-week follow-up on 30-day readmission rates and patient satisfactions scores. The QI project increased organizational awareness of the low level of health literacy for patients served in the medical-surgical unit. The nurses on the floor displayed improved communication strategies based on the results of the patients' health literacy assessment. This was demonstrated by the improved patient satisfaction scores related to nurse communications following project implementation. This project succeeded in accumulating new knowledge on health literacy data and providing a correlation between low literacy levels and the readmission risk. However, the nurse intervention failed to achieve the expected outcome owing to lack of compliance with the health literacy algorithm and utilization of resources. The lack of nurse participation and compliance with the project algorithm may have contributed to an increase in 30-day readmission rates for the floor.

Emily Whitaker

Author Details

Emily Whitaker, DNP, RN

Sigma Membership

Non-member

Type

DNP Capstone Project

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Quality Improvement

Research Approach

Pilot/Exploratory Study

Keywords:

Readmission Rates, Patient Satisfaction Scores

Advisor

George Peraza-Smith

Second Advisor

Yolanda Vanriel

Third Advisor

Anita Harris

Degree

DNP

Degree Grantor

Capella University

Degree Year

2019

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Self-submission

Date of Issue

2019-05-17

Full Text of Presentation

wf_yes

Download

Share

COinS