Alice M. Horowitz and Min Qi Wang are with the Department of Behavioral and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park. Dushanka V. Kleinman is with the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatics, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park. Catherine Maybury and Sarah D. Radice are with the Office of the Dean, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park. Wendy Child is an independent consultant, College Park, MD. Rima E. Rudd is with the Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA.
Am J Public Health. 2014 Aug;104(8):e85-93. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302036. Epub 2014 Jun 12.
We conducted health literacy environmental scans in 26 Maryland community-based dental clinics to identify institutional characteristics and provider practices that affect dental services access and dental caries education.
In 2011-2012 we assessed user friendliness of the clinics including accessibility, signage, facility navigation, educational materials, and patient forms. We interviewed patients and surveyed dental providers about their knowledge and use of communication techniques.
Of 32 clinics, 26 participated. Implementation of the health literacy environmental scan tools was acceptable to the dental directors and provided clinic directors with information to enhance care and outreach. We found considerable variation among clinic facilities, operations, and content of educational materials. There was less variation in types of insurance accepted, no-show rates, methods of communicating with patients, and electronic health records use. Providers who had taken a communication skills course were more likely than those who had not to use recommended communication techniques.
Our findings provide insight into the use of health literacy environmental scan tools to identify clinic and provider characteristics and practices that can be used to make dental environments more user friendly and health literate.
我们对马里兰州 26 家社区牙科诊所进行了健康素养环境扫描，以确定影响牙科服务获取和龋齿教育的机构特征和提供者实践。
2011-2012 年，我们评估了诊所的用户友好性，包括可及性、标识、设施导航、教育材料和患者表格。我们采访了患者，并对牙科提供者进行了关于他们对沟通技巧的了解和使用情况的调查。
在 32 家诊所中，有 26 家参与了调查。健康素养环境扫描工具的实施得到了牙科主任的认可，并为诊所主任提供了改善护理和外展服务的信息。我们发现诊所设施、运营和教育材料内容之间存在很大差异。接受的保险类型、失约率、与患者沟通的方法和电子健康记录的使用情况差异较小。参加过沟通技巧课程的提供者比没有参加过的提供者更有可能使用推荐的沟通技巧。
我们的研究结果提供了对使用健康素养环境扫描工具来确定诊所和提供者特征和实践的深入了解，这些特征和实践可以用来使牙科环境更便于用户使用和更具健康素养。
