Doctors should write their outpatient clinic letters in plain English, according to a September 2018 initiative from the United Kingdom's Academy of Royal Medical Colleges. The project was spotlighted in a September 5, 2018, article in the New York Times. Clinic letters are typically sent to the patient's general practitioner, with the patient getting a copy. Because of this, doctors write "about their patients instead of writing to them," which can cause barriers. Writing in plain English, directly to the patients, "changes the relationship between doctor and patient," the physician leading the initiative told the Times. Patients often misinterpret complex medical jargon. The guidelines thus recommend that doctor avoid using words that cause confusion, such as chronic, which patients may take to mean "really bad" rather than the doctor's intended meaning of a long-standing condition. Other suggestions include using "kidney" instead of "renal" and "sudden" or "short-term" instead of "acute." Doctors should also use English terms rather than Latin when writing prescriptions. Further advice offered by the guidance includes delivering "upsetting or unexpected" results by phone instead of letter and to "soften the impact" of delivery of sensitive information by employing a distant or noncommittal style. Patients who participated in the pilot project found the new style more "informative, supportive, and useful," the Times said.

HRC Recommends: To successfully engage patients in their care, patients need to be able to understand it. However, even people with adequate health literacy may have trouble understanding health information. Therefore, organizations may wish to make all materials and discussions easier for patients to understand by using plain language when possible. Healthcare organizations should assess patient education materials in all formats—ideally, with current feedback from patients. Organizations should look at the vocabulary used and the time given to in-person patient discussions or outpatient communications, and work to ensure both that sufficient time is allotted to speak with the patient and that the words used in outpatient communications (written or verbal) are accessible to patients.