Flathead County WIC center uses ChannelCare digital signage to improve health literacy in rural Montana

1. ChannelCare® digital signage
enhances health literacy
A case study:
Flathead City - County Health Department, Montana
“
ChannelCare is the ideal
medium for enhancing our
health literacy communications
”
efforts. Leslie Deck, MPA, CHES
Health promotion coordinator
The Flathead City – County Health Department
in Flathead County, Montana employs Vericom’s
ChannelCare digital signage in its Women,
Infants, and Children’s Center (WIC). The WIC
program provides supplemental nutrition to low
income pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding
The importance of health literacy
women and children.
According to the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act of 2010, Title V, the ultimate measure
Low health literacy is an issue this center routinely
of strong health literacy is the degree to which
faces, and providers and educators strive to
an individual has the ability to use health information
communicate information via digital signage
to make the right health choices. Every day, people
in a way that makes it easier for audiences to take
encounter situations that involve life-altering
action to improve their health and use services at
decisions about their health, yet nearly 9 out of 10
the center. Messaging informs the community
adults have problems understanding and using health
about car seat programs, cancer prevention,
information (Centers for Disease Control and
immunizations, home visit programs for pregnant
Prevention {CDC}).
women, teen pregnancy programs, and puberty
and reproductive health classes.

2. The CDC asserts that without a clear understanding ChannelCare provides a built-in content library
of health information, people are likely to allowing clients to select pre-made messages
“skip necessary medical tests, end up in the designed to promote health education and support
emergency room more often, and have a harder time their programs. This content library makes
managing chronic diseases like diabetes or high it easy for the health department to routinely choose
blood pressure.” The problem of low health literacy new messages to keep programming fresh.
in the Flathead County community impacts the ability
to access and effectively use critical services to ChannelCare plays to a captive waiting audience
prevent illness, encourage wellness, and get who benefits from health education content they
necessary treatment. wouldn’t be exposed to otherwise.The high definition
messaging is engaging and pertinent to the location.
“
According to Leslie Deck, MPA, CHES, health
ChannelCare is easily promotion coordinator at the center,
“The images are awesome, the software is easy
understandable, so audiences to use, and most people have rated the messages
can begin to make necessary
”
as being very informative and relevant according
behavior changes. to survey feedback.”
Leslie Deck, MPA, CHES Future communication plans at
Health promotion coordinator
Flathead City-County Health
Department
How ChannelCare helps improve ”A lot of our communication plans for the future
health literacy involve teaching people how to stay healthy on
a budget. How to exercise when you don’t have
ChannelCare content motivates audiences to take access to a health club or equipment and
action, influencing them to get screened, eat right generally eating well for little cost,” says Deck.
and exercise, quit smoking, and more. If audiences “We know ChannelCare is the ideal medium
can’t understand health information, they can’t act for enhancing our health literacy communications
on it. Vericom’s health writers, clinicians, and efforts to ensure we not only deliver the messaging
graphic artists use health literacy techniques such as: important to our center, but that it is easily
understandable so audiences can begin to make
• Avoiding the use of medical jargon necessary behavior changes.”
• Keeping the information focused on a single
aspect of a topic
• Using images that reinforce the meaning
of the text
Copyright © 2012 Vericom Corporation
1000 Holcomb Woods Parkway, Suite 408 • Roswell, GA 30076
800.800.1090 | vericom.net