Health Literacy and PPPSW

When talking about health literacy in class it made me remember a patient that we had at Planned Parenthood not too long ago. The clinic that I work at is in Kearny Mesa in the middle of a lot of business parks and the patients some what represent the setting. At our clinic we do get some Spanish only speakers, which we are used to, which is why about half of our clinic workers are Spanish speaking as well. One day an older Mexican woman came in, and like always we asked her to check in with a check-in sheet, and after getting a fellow clinic worker that spoke Spanish, we realized that she could not read or write in Spanish. I felt very shocked, which I shouldn't have been, but she was the first patient I had seen at the clinic who couldn't check in with our normal process. Then we realized that she couldn't fill out the medical history or the Family PACT application form either, which every new patient needs to do. Luckily my assistant manager was available that spoke Spanish to talk her through the forms, check her in, and then work her up for a clinician, which probably took about 45 min. Also the patient had a history of abuse that needed to be reported, which took about an additional 15 minutes. I felt as though I was so glad that this woman had come in, even though she was faced with literacy barriers, because she seemed as though she really needed our services. The sad part is, she really pointed out how unready Planned Parenthood was to help an individual who can not read or write in Spanish or English. On the typical day at Planned Parenthood we are short one person, and rushing to keep from getting behind on our schedules with the patient's visits already lasting 2 hours. What if she had come in on a different day, would she have left the clinic feeling the same? Would we have had the time that she needed for the assistance? I am not sure. Although a majority of our patients can read and write, I feel as though there should be protocols to follow and training to be prepared to give illiterate patients the best care possible. I suppose a lot of it is common sense and just making sure your patient's needs are fully met. I feel as though this would be a good topic for one of Planned Parenthood's agency wide in-service days, and I think I will suggest it to them. Especially since our Planned Parenthood is now the Planned Parenthood of the Pacific South West (PPPSW), after including Imperial County, I think this would be a relevant topic.