# Patient information Patient information is organised around what the patient needs to know and when, so that after reading it they know what to do next. ## Fixed and yours to adapt ### Fixed - Write to the patient as "you", never about "the patient" in the third person. - Legal and data-protection text goes in a section of its own, apart from the guidance, and sales or marketing never go into care information. - Museo Sans, or Arial as the fallback, in sentence case throughout, headings included. - No text below 14px or its equivalent, and contrast that meets WCAG AA. - Print uses the Pantone and CMYK values in the colour table, which are the same whatever the printer or the paper, and in print the brand orange is orange-500. - The sender is Aleris: the full logo in a corner, which in much printed material is bottom right, with no unit or specialist-area name added. ### Yours to adapt - What the document leads with and what it dials down, which depends on the state the patient is in when they read it. - Numbered lists where the order matters, such as hygiene preparations before an operation, and running text or bullets otherwise. - The base size and line spacing of a printed document, to suit the paper format. - How much room sand takes: a printed patient brochure can let sand dominate, because the format allows the calm. - The mix of images: a patient brochure can combine Care and Life images. - Which corner the logo sits in, and whether the horizontal or the vertical variant fits the space. ## Voice A patient guide helps the patient succeed at what they have to do, and each instruction carries its reason. It runs in this order: what the document covers, when to contact us, the preparations or instructions in the order they happen, what to expect afterwards, and contact details with the next step. An appointment letter first confirms the date, time, place and who the patient will meet, then says what to do beforehand, how to find the way and what to bring, and last how to rebook. - **Do · "You need to fast for the last six hours, because it lowers the risk during the anaesthetic. Water, and tea or coffee without milk, are fine until two hours before."** The instruction and its reason come together, in words the patient can act on. - **Don't · "To prevent the risk of stomach contents entering the lungs during anaesthesia."** It gives a clinical reason with no instruction attached, so the patient is left to work out what to do. - **Do · A heading that says "Your medicines before the operation".** The patient can read the headings alone and know what to do. - **Don't · A heading that says "Medication".** It names the clinic's category, and the patient has to read on to find out what applies to them. ## Reader state Structure the document around the state the patient is in when they read it. Before a procedure, lead with what will happen, step by step, with a list, a timeline and a contact detail; after it, lead with what happened and the next step, in short text and large type. - **Do · A preparation guide that opens with what happens on the day, in order, and who to call.** Structure eases uncertainty, because the patient knows what comes next. - **Don't · An aftercare sheet that opens with an overview of the whole treatment.** A disoriented reader needs affirmation and the next step, and a process overview is what to dial down. ## Typography A printed guide or letter can have its own base size and line spacing to suit the paper, while the typeface, the hierarchy, sentence case and the accessibility floor stay as they are. In Word and other Office files, set the text in Arial: regular 400 for body text and bold 700 for headings. - **Do · Bold for the one instruction that matters most, such as the time to stop eating.** Bold (700) has the contrast against regular that italics lack. - **Don't · A heading in capital letters.** All caps makes the letters uniform, so the eye loses the word shapes that help it read quickly. ## Imagery For a patient before an assessment or procedure, lead with Care images that show competence and the process, with a portrait of the person the patient will meet. For a service the patient has chosen, such as a health check-up, Life images can lead, with Care images showing the expertise behind them. Images that show how to do something, such as how to hold an injection pen, are outside these rules, because they need even light with the hand and the object both in focus. Decide them case by case with marketing. - **Do · A photographed portrait of the surgeon the patient will meet, in the guide before the operation.** It shows the real person the patient will recognise on the day. - **Don't · A stock photo of a smiling patient against a white background.** Arranged situations and smiles with no cause break the promise that what is shown is real. ## Check before you send - **Read the headings on their own.** A patient should know what to do from the headings, without reading the body text. - **Look for blank fields.** A blank the patient is not meant to fill in tells them the letter is a template, and they do not feel seen. - **Find every clinical term.** Terms such as anaesthesia or anaphylaxis are explained where they appear. - **Give every risk a way forward.** Say how likely it is and what the patient does if it happens, because a bare list of risks creates worry. - **Look for legal text in the flow.** Data protection and record sharing go under a heading of their own. - **Check dates and times.** Write the date and the time, because "tomorrow" in a letter or a PDF is false by the time it is read. - **Read the smallest text.** Nothing is set below the accessibility floor, in print as well as on screen.