Developing Patient Content That Works with Scott Zeitzer & Ashley Hohensee

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In this Episode

• 00:03:00– Understanding the Reading Levels and Health Literacy of Patients
• 00:07:32 – Challenges in Communicating with Patients
• 00:22:25 – Navigating the Changing Landscape of Online Communication
• 00:29:29 – Handling Misinformation and Providing Additional Resources
• 00:35:20 – The Importance of Expertise in Patient Communication

Quotes From This Episode

A 2020 Gallup analysis from the US Department of Education said that more than half of Americans aged 16 through 74 read below the sixth grade level. So that’s the first thing we need to understand in terms of making sure we’re writing content that’s below that level so that people can understand.

Ashley Hohensee

If you’re using really technical language, more than likely, maybe your patients aren’t understanding it. And then they’re afraid to tell you if they don’t. So you end up with people who are just maybe confused or not confident about what you’re recommending. When they’re not confident about what you’re recommending, maybe they don’t adhere to treatment. Maybe they’re just not satisfied in the end. Maybe they go to a different provider. So there’s a lot of things that can happen with that and a lot of reasons why, you know, we need to make sure we are catering the content to what patients need to see and understand.

Ashley Hohensee

We’re trying to explain medical content so that it’s understandable for the patient who honestly is scared. You know, we work with ortho, spine, and neurosurgeons. For the surgeon, a lot of procedures that they do are extremely simple. But for the patient, it’s the first time they’ve ever been in a hospital, let alone a surgery.

Scott Zeitzer