Exploring Organisational Health Literacy Operationalisation in Health Services

Organisational health literacy (OHL) ensures health services are easy for people to access, navigate, understand, and use so people can better look after their health. Soft-systems methodology and realist methodology were used to explore how organisations can improve their OHL, through an analysis of what works for whom, in what circumstances, and why. The results provide guidance to organisation on how to implement OHL. The research found that organisations need to have multiple supporting contexts, such as executive commitment, staff with expertise and shared responsibility, and they need to implement the work in a specific sequence to achieve OHL outcomes.