Wisconsin Health Literacy to expand easier-to-understand prescription medicine label to additional Wisconsin pharmacies

Wisconsin Health Literacy (WHL), a division of Wisconsin Literacy, Inc., was awarded a three-year, $446,000 grant to expand the number of Wisconsin pharmacies using an easier-to-understand prescription medicine label. The grant will be used to help pharmacies across the state implement label standards from the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) designed to help patients better understand how and when to take their medicines.

Funding is from the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin (AHW) endowment at the Medical College of Wisconsin as part of its policy and systems awards to improve health in communities across Wisconsin. The WHL project is one of five programs to receive the new funding. “Each of these initiatives are working to address important health issues in very different communities with diverse needs across Wisconsin,” said Christina Ellis, program director at the AHW Endowment. “But they all share a commitment to improving health through partnerships with a focus on policy and systems change.”

“Every day, many Wisconsin residents don’t fully benefit from prescription medicines,” said Steve Sparks, Director of Wisconsin Health Literacy. “Many suffer new health problems—all because they misunderstand how to take their prescriptions. Through a partnership between Wisconsin Health Literacy and MCW, hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin residents will receive prescriptions with new labels to help them more safely and effectively take needed medicines.”

This new grant will enable Wisconsin Health Literacy to build on a pilot program currently introducing easier-to-understand prescription medicine labels in nearly 50 pharmacy sites affiliated with UW Health, Hayat Pharmacy and Hometown Pharmacy. Nearly 1.8 million prescriptions already are impacted by the current project, also funded by the AHW endowment.