Organisationale Gesundheitskompetenz in deutschen Krankenhäusern während der COVID-19-Pandemie – Ergebnisse einer Querschnittstudie unter Krankenhausleitungen

Organizational health literacy (OHL) defines requirements and activities in health care organizations, such as hospitals, to enable patients to make good health-related decisions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals were also required to make it easier for their patients to access and use health information and services.

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of OHL activities in German hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus is on the comparison of OHL activities in hospitals during and outside the pandemic period.

An online survey of medical, nursing, and administrative hospital management was conducted in November and December 2022. OHL was collected using the health literate health care organization 10 item (HLHO-10) questionnaire, which was successfully adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic (good internal consistency: α = 0.89). Analysis was performed with SPSS 28 using variance and correlation analysis. It was also possible to provide open-ended information on OHL activities, which was analyzed using MAXQDA and qualitative content analysis.

Of 3301 invited hospital managers, 328 participated (response rate 10%). Hospital managers stated to take necessary care in hospitals to ensure patients can easily find their way around during the pandemic. However, we found little evidence of patients being actively involved in the design and evaluation of health information. At the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly more staff were trained in health literacy (p < 0.001). The respondents’ open-ended responses indicate that there is a need for optimization, but that they are struggling to meet this need due to a lack of resources.

Hospital managers are aware that not all aspects of health literacy are equally well implemented. It is crucial to consistently integrate health literacy into organizational activities and prioritize the topic.