2.K. Scientific session: Promoting organizational health literacy in healthcare organizations and beyond in Europe
Authors:   Organised by: Austrian National Public Health Institute (Austria), Aarhus University (Denmark), Steno Diabetes Center Sjaelland (Denmark), EUPHA-HL, -HCW, WHO/Europe,   Chair persons: Diane Levin-Zamir (Israel), Christa Straßmayr (Austria)
Published: October 2024

Organizational health literacy (OHL) has been defined as the degree to which healthcare organizations equitably enable/empower people, through organizational structures, policies, and processes, to find, understand, appraise, and use information and services to make health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others. By adopting an OHL approach, healthcare organizations enhance health service delivery by simplifying interaction with health systems by making information and services more comprehensible. An OHL approach not only reduces health literacy demands of patients, but also of workforce and the resident population of the community that they serve. The workshop focuses on two theory-based initiatives that focus at promoting OHL in Europe: (1) the Organizational Health Literacy for All (OHL-ALL) initiative, which developed a practice-oriented OHL approach for organizations promoting equity explicitly to support people in vulnerable positions with or at risk for diabetes or other non-communicable diseases, and (2) the World Health Organization (WHO) Action Network on Measuring Population and Organizational Health Literacy (M-POHL) which aims at initiating and facilitating the (self-) assessment of OHL in healthcare organization by developing, providing, and disseminating OHL assessment tools. Both initiatives strive to support organizational change and workforce responsiveness. While the first initiative goes beyond health literacy responsiveness of healthcare organizations intending to offer guidance for organizations on how to give all individuals the best possible opportunities to achieve their optimal health and well-being, the second initiative specifically focuses on OHL in healthcare organizations using a settings approach with a focus on health care, prevention, and health promotion. The initiatives enrich and complement each other. The workshop consists of five short presentations, followed by a discussion among the presenters and the audience. The first presentation focuses on the development of the theory-informed and coherent OHL approach of the OHL-ALL initiative. The second presentation provides an overview of the M-POHL initiative and its innovative tools. Then three presentations will showcase results, experiences, and outcomes from European countries on assessing OHL in different healthcare settings. Expected impact: Theory-based guidance for implementing organizational development will be provided. Results from the M-POHL initiative will contribute to greatly needed insights into OHL needs and opportunities of healthcare organizations. The insights from these real-world assessments and implementation can inform future public health practice, policy, and research.

Key messages

• An OHL approach contributes to better equity. It helps meet health literacy needs of patients, health and care workforce and the resident population of the community that are served.

• New tools have been developed to support management and health and care workforce in assessing and improving OHL responsiveness, to better serve patient communities.