Addressing Systemic Health Literacy Issues and Patient Safety through a Grassroots Collaborative

An innovative Health Literacy Collaborative between academia and the Dallas Fort Worth Hospital Council Foundation (DFWHCF) which encompasses 80-member organizations. The collaborative works to build a “Culture of Health Literacy” throughout north Texas and ultimately the entire state. The goal is to bridge the divide between the culture of healthcare and the culture of people’s lives in following medical and health related advice through community-based education and advocacy. The DFWHCF provides the infrastructure to the collaborative to incorporate/to address the CDC recommendations for health literacy intervention while utilizing the evidence-based power of systemic change to improve patient care, outcomes and costs.