Patient education materials from the layperson's perspective: the importance of readability.

Accessible patient-friendly materials are a useful and cost-effective way of increasing patients' knowledge and allaying their fears. This article describes how nursing leadership at a hospital in Connecticut created a patient education committee to review and help draft materials and developed a Web site to centralize these materials for staff and patients. A patient panel was implemented to test materials; results highlighted the need for planning and testing of materials on target audiences.