Est1 Task 2

part to play as well, however it must be integrated with other program areas to achieve the anticipated results.

Strategies for the improvement of health literacy are vital tools of empowerment showing huge potential in the reduction of health inequalities. Take into consideration that people suffering from the condition of limited health literacy have produced the worst health outcomes. Health literacy has larger role to play in affecting the health outcomes among individuals with lower education as compared to those with higher education. Measures and steps to improve health literacy have been revealed to impact various health outcomes such as: disease reduction, making depression more severe, improving availability of health information and bettering health behaviors.

Gaps in literature

In my opinion, this

problem is not fully solved implying further research should be conducted specially to address the following concerns. Further research will assist in determining how improving the health literacy of the culturally diverse and minority groups and bettering the health and social care services can positively impact public health outcomes on a long term. It will assist in determining the most ideal measures to take in order to better health literacy of the vulnerable populations and improve the healthcare quality and public healthcare systems. Additionally, it will play a significant role in determining how cost effective the health literacy initiatives are (In Zerwekh & In Garneau, 2014).
The notion of enhancing health literacy to improve health outcomes and promote health equity is rapidly growing. Health literacy plays an important role in shaping the health outcomes among disadvantaged groups such as individuals with lower education levels. A recent review upheld that vulnerable groups stand higher chances of benefitting from shared decision making initiatives than learned groups of people. Increasing health literacy therefore shows great potential to promote health equality (In Zerwekh & In Garneau, 2014).
Evidence oriented measures aimed at addressing the issue of health literacy are arising from the grounds of health communication processes, health care and population health. This has seen the simplification and improvement of written material, and usage of other targeted tactics to patient education and bettering patient-healthcare provider communication. Interventions are taking place in various forms and have led to positive outcomes, showing that the issue of health literacy can be addressed effectively.
In relation to health information technology and health communication strategies, below is a health literacy action plan that encompasses some proposed solutions to improve health literacy and eventually the quality of health care as well.
o Promoting interoperability
This relates with the ability to share and reliably apply health information across health care settings, and systems which is a requisite in the attainment of electronically based quality improvement.
o Reinforcing privacy and health information security
Maintaining public trust is vital; hence individual’s medical information should be protected at whatever costs.

Health care and health care information are turning to become unity and are working together to facilitate improvement of health care quality and equity. Therefore, health providers and other relevant stakeholders must strive to put in place strong measures capable of effecting heightened privacy and security precautions. More transparency must also be ensured when medical care organizations and institutions are handling patient’s medical data.

o Providing support for the National Quality Strategy

Health information technology must be used as the powerful tool it is to attain the ultimate goal of generating improved healthcare quality and public health outcomes. The NQS outlines objectives and concerns for improving health equality and health care quality the same way. It implies that the quality improvement being enabled through health information technology will support the goals envisioned by the NQS (Taylor, 2015).

o Reinforcing the existing health information technology

infrastructure
More investments need to be directed towards health information technology to facilitate a wider embracement of certified health IT infrastructure. This should involve bridging the gaps and redesigning the necessary standards for sharing, seizing and applying health care information for quality improvement activities. These encompass, quality assessments and evaluation, public health and new payment frameworks and decision support (In Zerwekh & In Garneau, 2014).
o Empowering the quality ecosystem entirely
Health information should be collected, shared and used specially for quality improvement. This will match the ideal information with the appropriate individuals and the time they need to use it. Many people will benefit from data availability and accessibility and greater transparency. They encompass, health care providers, patients, researchers, policy makers and payers. New analytical tools can be applied as well as decision support resources purposely for informing the decision making process which, will enable better management of health care systems (Postal & Armstrong, 2013).

o Capturing once and replication
There should be user centered health information technology systems such that healthcare providers can seize all necessary information in a structured manner during the delivery of healthcare services. Such data is helpful in monitoring the progress of patients and their health needs. Furthermore, this data can also be harnessed, collected, and evaluated to facilitate decision support, quality assessment and reporting, public health management, population health outcomes and research. These efficiencies stand to minimize costs for stakeholders in the healthcare sector.
o Supporting all levels of health information technology sophistication
Various health care settings may require differing quality improvement to support their functionality. Health care providers with similar health information needs should device ways of working their quality improvements to their advantage.
o Increasing flexibility through modularity
Due to complexity of the health care systems, there is high resistance to change. This should present choice in case they are subdivided into independent mechanisms capable of being linked together. We should consider the changes occurring to health care delivery and healthcare technologies as time passes, therefore quality ecosystems potential to evolve must be preserved to enable us benefit from the advances in technology and research advancements in healthcare delivery. The purpose of modularity is to stimulate flexibility to create room for innovation and adopting new and more effective approaches without disrupting the entire healthcare system. However, it is our role to ensure that modularity does not present further complications (In Zerwekh & In Garneau, 2014).
o Aligning and simplification
Many government and private information collections and reporting needs are meant for quality improvement of clinical programs. Persistent efforts towards alignment and simplification of these needs can reduce the burden arising from collecting and reporting while leveraging information replication capabilities of health information technology. This implies that specially focusing on improving data needs is fundamental to promote embracement in the market (Taylor, 2015).