There has now been established an unmistakable link between a patient's overall health and the ability to understand and act on medical instructions and health information. Addressing the link between health literacy and health outcomes challenges all of us to engage patients with good, clear information," said AHIP President and CEO Karen Ignagni (Board, 2005)."

Some officials believe the answers are buried in such statistics as the number of patients who make medication mistakes. The American Association of Poison Control Centers reported that in 2002 nearly 100,000 people nationwide inadvertently took the wrong medication or the wrong dose. Another 20,000 took someone else's medication. And another 21,000 took their medications too close together, or were confused about the amounts or took more than one product containing the same ingredient. And these were just patients who called the center (Riley, 2003)."

Conclusion

As health issues continue to impact society, and medical...
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