Diabetes Education for Low-Literacy Patients

Have you recently diagnosed a patient with diabetes? Do you know their literacy level? I see many patients out in the field who are diabetics, and most have not had diabetes education with a certified diabetes educator. In the population of patients who have low literacy levels it is imperative they receive some degree of diabetes education. Perhaps bringing in a diabetes educator at regular intervals to your practice for a collective appointment could be beneficial to your practice and patients. In these days of value-based care, and meeting HEDIS guidelines, providing on-site diabetes education is a win-win! Most patients I’ve seen out in the field have never been offered educational classes on any of their chronic diseases, and this leads to a gap in care. Handing out pages of pre-populated discharge packets is not meeting their needs,
especially with those who have low literacy.

Let’s up the standard and practice of care for all chronic health conditions!