October is Health Literacy Month and healthcare organizations are encouraged to take this opportunity to simplify basic health information for patients and their families, so they can make informed decisions and be effective healthcare team members. This month MHS will highlight that health literacy is about the entire process of exchanging healthcare information. It is not just about reading and writing, but also about how people learn and communicate about their health.
To enable others to share information within the DoD community, our Monthly Communications Toolkit (CAC required) provides the MHS enterprise with customizable, ready-to-use material to promote these topics and other issues important to the health and wellness of the DoD community.
Health Literacy Month
Health Literacy is often defined as “the degree to which people can obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services they need to make appropriate health decisions.” It’s not just for patients. Anyone who provides health information and services to others, such as a doctor, nurse, dentist, pharmacist, or public health worker, benefits from advancing their health literacy skills. Increased transparency, a focal area of the Military Health System’s journey towards high reliability, is helping to improve health literacy across the MHS.
National Health Care Quality Week (October 18-24)
National Health Care Quality Week celebrates the contributions professionals have made in the field of health care and brings greater awareness to the profession of health care quality. Through Clinical Quality Management, the Military Health System affirms its unwavering commitment to quality health care and patient safety for beneficiaries, joint healthcare teams, and Combatant Commands across the globe.
National Audiology Awareness Month
October is National Audiology Awareness Month. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, more than 36 million American adults have some degree of hearing loss and over half of them are younger than age 65. This annual observance increases awareness of hearing as a critical sense and the role audiologists and hearing healthcare professionals play in caring for patients. It also focuses on preventing hearing loss and why hearing health is a vital element of maintaining total force readiness.
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