MSSNY - Cross-Cultural Care

Quality Interactions
A Patient-Based Approach to Cross-Cultural Care

According to the Institute of Medicine report on health literacy, 90 million people – from all ages, races, income and education levels – have difficulty understanding and following common healthcare communications. Commonly misunderstood are physician explanations or diagnoses, prescription instructions, test results, privacy notices, insurance and consent forms.

Individuals with low health literacy incur medical expenses that are up to four times greater than patients with adequate literacy skills, costing the healthcare system billions of dollars every year for unnecessary physician visits and frequent and longer hospital stays. Compounding the problem is the fact that most patients hide their confusion from their physicians because they are too ashamed and intimidated to ask for help. As a result, patients with low health literacy use expensive health services but receive less preventive healthcare.

In addition, cultural differences make patients address their healthcare differently and while it important for physicians to identify which of their patients have low health literacy, it’s also imperative that physicians recognize these cultural differences in order to ensure effective, high-quality medical treatment.

Responding to an increasing need to educate physicians on this topic of health literacy and cultural competency, the link below take physicians to an online CME program (2.0 AMA PRA Category 1 credits available) designed to instruct physicians on the steps necessary to provide ALL their patients with healthcare information and instructions that are clearly understood.

The identification number to go online and take this course, developed by the Manhattan Cross Cultural Group, Inc., is 7000 and should be entered in the space for the Organization ID as you register. Your user ID is your email address and you select your password.

Online CME Program