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AHRQ Health Literacy Tools for Use in Pharmacies
Recognizing that pharmacies may need additional knowledge and assistance to improve their health literacy practices, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has developed four new health literacy tools for pharmacy and a set of curricular tools for pharmacy faculty:
- Pharmacy Health Literacy Assessment Tool & User's Guide.
- Training Program for Pharmacy Staff on Communication.
- Guide on How To Create a Pill Card.
- Telephone Reminder Tool To Help Refill Medicines On Time.
This tool is a comprehensive guide to help pharmacies assess how well they are set up to serve patients with limited health literacy.
Why use this tool?
- See if you and your staff are meeting patient needs.
- Detect potential barriers for patients with limited literacy skills to comprehending pharmacy information.
- Identify opportunities to improve your customer service.
This tool consists of four parts:
- Part I: Assessment Tour of the Pharmacy.
- Part II: Pharmacy Staff Survey.
- Part III: Guide for Focus Groups With Patients (A Spanish translation of this guide is available (PDF File, 82 KB, Plugin Software Help).
- Part IV: Using Assessment Results.
Get started using this tool
Pharmacy Health Literacy
Assessment Tool User's Guide, PDF
File, 1.3 MB, Plugin Software Help
This training program is intended for pharmacy staff members who regularly interact with patients and provide patients with health information. The training program:
- Introduces pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and other pharmacy staff to the problem of low health literacy.
- Identifies implications of the problem.
- Explains techniques for pharmacy staff members to improve communication with patients who may have limited health literacy skills.
The training program includes: PowerPoint® slides, handouts, and notes
for the trainer or presenter.
Get started
Strategies
to Improve Communication Between Pharmacists and Patients: Curriculum
Guide, PDF
File, 250 KB, Plugin Software Help
Use this guide to find out how you can create an easy-to-use "pill card" for your patients, parents, or anyone you know who has a hard time keeping track of their medicines.
Get started:
How to Create
a Pill Card, PDF
File, 290 KB, Plugin Software Help
An automated telephone reminder system calls patients to remind them to refill their prescriptions and allows patients to order their refills on the phone. These systems can be difficult for patients with limited health literacy to use. This literacy-friendly telephone script is provided for use by pharmacies who want to provide automated refill reminder calls to patients to improve adherence with medication regimens.
Get started:
Guide: Automated Telephone
Reminders, PDF
File, 300 KB, Plugin Software Help
The following links provide support specifically for the Pharmacy Health Literacy Assessment Tool and User's Guide:
Spanish Translation of Facilitator's Guide for Patient Focus Groups
A translated version
of the Facilitator's Guide for Patient Focus Groups is available
(PDF
File, 82 KB, Plugin Software Help).
As part of the Pharmacy Health Literacy Center Web site, AHRQ is also providing a list of organizations that may be useful for pharmacists. The following organizations may be a good place to start for pharmacists interested in securing assistance or support in implementing the AHRQ tools.
American
Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) 
The over 100 U.S.-based colleges and schools of pharmacy may be helpful resources for
pharmacists interested in identifying faculty members, pharmacy residents, or pharmacy
students interested in health literacy or a research project, for example.
Schools
of Public Health and Public Health Programs Schools of public health, like colleges and schools of pharmacy, may
have faculty and students interested in health literacy or a research project.
American
Evaluation Association (AEA)
The American Evaluation Association is a professional association of
evaluators, and has a Web site tool, "find an evaluator," that
helps identify evaluators in each State. Pharmacists may be interested
in hiring an evaluator to complete the Assessment Tool, for example.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality 
540 Gaither Road Rockville, MD 20850 Telephone: (301) 427-1364
