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Table 1 The 9 standards of the Vienna Health Literate Organisations (adapted from Dietscher and Pelikan 2016)

From: Dealing with health literacy at the organisational level, French translation and adaptation of the Vienna health literate organisation self-assessment tool

Standards

Examples of items

 1. Establish management policy and organisational structures for health literacy

- Financial resources and personnel for organisational health literacy are available.

- Patient surveys include questions about the quality of communication.

 2. Develop materials and services in participation with relevant stakeholders

- Documents and services for patients (such as information sheets, informed consent forms and apps) are developed and tested together with patient representatives.

- Patients are involved in the training of staff.

 3. Qualify staff for health-literate communication with patients

- When hiring new staff, importance is given to the health literacy and communication competencies of applicants.

- Staff is trained with regard to collaboration with interpreters.

 4. Provide a supportive environment – health-literate navigation and access

- The website is available in different languages.

- The organisation can be reached by telephone 24 h a day.

 5. Apply health literacy principles in routine communication with patients

- Patients are encouraged to ask questions.

- Written materials are used to reinforce spoken communication and not as a substitute.

 6. Improve health literacy of patients and relatives beyond hospital stay

- The organisation explicitly informs patients about self-help groups and similar support offers.

 7. Improve the health literacy of staff

- The organisation continuously provides training in managing occupational health and safety risks.

 8. Contribute to health literacy in the region

- Patients are supported in scheduling their post-discharge appointments with other services.

 9. Share experiences and be a role model

- The organisation participates in health literacy research and development projects.