ChannelCare® digital signage enhances health literacyA case study:Flathead City - County Health Department, Montana

ChannelCareistheidealmediumforenhancingourhealthliteracycommunicationsefforts. The Flathead City – County Health Department in Flathead County, Montana employs Vericom’s ChannelCare digital signage in its Women, Infants, and Children’s Center (WIC). The WIC program provides supplemental nutrition to low income pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women and children. Low health literacy is an issue this center routinely faces, and providers and educators strive to communicate information via digital signage in a way that makes it easier for audiences to take action to improve their health and use services at the center. Messaging informs the community about car seat programs, cancer prevention, immunizations, home visit programs for pregnant women, teen pregnancy programs, and puberty and reproductive health classes.

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The importance of health literacy

According to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, Title V, the ultimate measure of strong health literacy is the degree to which an individual has the ability to use health information to make the right health choices. Every day, people encounter situations that involve life-altering decisions about their health, yet nearly 9 out of 10 adults have problems understanding and using health information (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention {CDC}).

Leslie Deck, MPA, CHES Health promotion coordinator

The CDC asserts that without a clear understanding of health information, people are likely to “skip necessary medical tests, end up in the emergency room more often, and have a harder time managing chronic diseases like diabetes or high blood pressure.” The problem of low health literacy in the Flathead County community impacts the ability to access and effectively use critical services to prevent illness, encourage wellness, and get necessary treatment.

ChannelCareiseasilyunderstandable,soaudiencescanbegintomakenecessarybehaviorchanges.How ChannelCare helps improve health literacy

ChannelCare content motivates audiences to take action, influencing them to get screened, eat right and exercise, quit smoking, and more. If audiences can’t understand health information, they can’t act on it. Vericom’s health writers, clinicians, and graphic artists use health literacy techniques such as:

• Avoiding the use of medical jargon • Keeping the information focused on a single aspect of a topic • Using images that reinforce the meaning of the text

ChannelCare provides a built-in content library allowing clients to select pre-made messages designed to promote health education and support their programs. This content library makes it easy for the health department to routinely choose new messages to keep programming fresh.

ChannelCare plays to a captive waiting audience who benefits from health education content they wouldn’t be exposed to otherwise.The high definition messaging is engaging and pertinent to the location. According to Leslie Deck, MPA, CHES, health promotion coordinator at the center, “The images are awesome, the software is easy to use, and most people have rated the messages as being very informative and relevant according to survey feedback.”

Future communication plans at Flathead City-County Health Department ”A lot of our communication plans for the future involve teaching people how to stay healthy on a budget. How to exercise when you don’t have access to a health club or equipment and generally eating well for little cost,” says Deck. “We know ChannelCare is the ideal medium for enhancing our health literacy communications efforts to ensure we not only deliver the messaging important to our center, but that it is easily understandable so audiences can begin to make necessary behavior changes.”

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“”Leslie Deck, MPA, CHES

Health promotion coordinator