Abstract
This paper explores the economic and social impact of health literacy nationally and within the Veteran's Affair's end stage renal disease (ESRD) patient population. Currently, there are 90 million Americans with at least some deficiency in health literacy. Persons with low health literacy cost more to care for than their peers, utilize more healthcare resources, misuse resources, and fail to adhere to treatment plans prescribed by providers due to misunderstanding healthcare information. Patients with ESRD consume as much as 28% of all Medicare dollars, and 47% of veterans are outsourced to non-VA facilities for dialysis and chronic care needs related to ESRD. Using the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) assessment tool, this research seeks to document evidence that either supports or contradicts two important questions regarding health literacy and renal transplantation: persons with low health literacy are less likely to elect renal transplant as a cure for ESRD, while patients with inadequate health literacy have more documented poor outcomes after transplant. Outcomes monitored include readmission rates, graft function laboratory data, incidence of rejection, incidence of catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), and need for dialysis.