Better Physician–Patient Communication Is Needed for All Hospitalized Patients

Ineffective physician–patient communication at hospital discharge is associated with poor medical adherence, ineffective disease management, unplanned readmissions, and, in some cases, excess mortality. Although we know quite a lot about patients with low health literacy (i.e., ability to understand basic health information and make appropriate health decisions) in the outpatient setting, we know less about health literacy among hospitalized patients.

To evaluate the level of health literacy among inpatients, researchers recruited patients from a single large urban hospital that served a primarily low-income black population. Patients who did not speaking English fluently, who were delirious, or who were hearing or vision impaired were exclu…