| Course | MMHA 6800 Marketing Management and Business Communication for Healthcare Administrators |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 6 |
| Paper type | Patient letter with rationale |
| Length | About 590 words, 4 pages |
| Format | Letter, APA 7 citations |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MMHA 6800 Week 6
Month Day, Year
Brightwater Kids Urgent Care
4410 Maple Crossing Parkway
Maple Crossing, [State ZIP]
To the family of [Child's First Name]
[Street Address]
[City, State ZIP]
Re: New Saturday hours start [Date]
Dear Parent or Guardian:
Starting Saturday, [Date], our Saturday walk-in hours will change.
Old Saturday hours: 9 in the morning until 9 at night
New Saturday hours: 10 in the morning until 10 at night
Our Sunday and weekday hours are not changing.
Why are we making this change? Most families come to see us on Saturday evenings. Fewer come early in the morning. Moving our hours one hour later means more doctors and nurses will be here when you need us most.
What this means for you:
If your child gets sick on a Saturday morning before 10 a.m., call your child's doctor's office first. Many offices have Saturday morning hours or a nurse phone line.
If your child gets sick on Saturday night, you now have one more hour to come see us.
You can still check our wait time and save a spot online at [web address] or by calling [phone number].
Important: Call 911, or head straight to an emergency room, if your child has trouble breathing, is very hard to wake up, has a seizure, or has a serious injury.
If you have questions, please call us at [phone number]. We are happy to help.
Thank you for trusting us with your child's care.
Sincerely,
[Name]
Practice Manager, Brightwater Kids Urgent Care
Readability Check
The letter was checked before mailing. Its Flesch Reading Ease score is about 80, and its Flesch-Kincaid grade level is about 5, within the range commonly recommended for patient materials. The Flesch method scores text by sentence length and syllables per word, so short sentences and common words raise the score (Flesch, 1948). Two drafts were rejected. The first opened with a paragraph about the system's commitment to families before reaching the change, and scored at grade 9. The second used the phrase "operational realignment of weekend staffing," which three parents in a quick hallway test could not explain.
Readability formulas measure length, not meaning. The letter was also read aloud by two front-desk staff who answer family calls, who confirmed that each sentence matched what they would say on the phone.
Rationale Memo
To: Practice Manager and Marketing Director. From: Communications Coordinator (MMHA student). Re: Why the letter is written this way.
The letter goes to every family seen at the site in the past year. Many parents will read it quickly, on a phone, while doing something else. Low health literacy is common and is linked to worse health outcomes and to difficulty using health services (Berkman et al., 2011), so the letter is written for the parent who reads least easily, not the one who reads most.
Four choices follow from that. The change comes first, before any explanation, because readers who stop after one sentence should still know it. The old and new hours appear on separate lines, so parents can see the difference at a glance. The reason is given in plain terms that parents can check against their own experience; most of them do come on Saturday evenings. And the letter tells parents what to do in the one hour they lose, Saturday morning, by sending them to their own pediatrician, which supports the coordination with the medical home that pediatric guidance recommends for urgent care sites (Conners et al., 2017).
The emergency warning is repeated even though the letter is about hours. Every communication from the site carries it, and a letter about when the site is closed is exactly when a parent might wonder where else to go.
References
Berkman, N. D., Sheridan, S. L., Donahue, K. E., Halpern, D. J., & Crotty, K. (2011). Low health literacy and health outcomes: An updated systematic review. Annals of Internal Medicine, 155(2), 97-107. https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-155-2-201107190-00005
Conners, G. P., Kressly, S. J., Perrin, J. M., Richerson, J. E., & Sankrithi, U. M. (2017). Nonemergency acute care: When it's not the medical home. Pediatrics, 139(5), e20170629. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2017-0629
Flesch, R. (1948). A new readability yardstick. Journal of Applied Psychology, 32(3), 221-233. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0057532
What the MMHA 6800 Week 6 instructions ask for
Patient letter assignments ask you to communicate a change clearly to people who may read quickly or with difficulty. Put the change and its date first. Show old and new information side by side. Give a brief, honest reason. Tell readers what to do differently, especially during any gap the change creates. Repeat safety information that always applies. Use short sentences and common words, then check readability with a recognized formula and with real readers or staff who talk to patients. Attach a rationale explaining your choices with evidence about health literacy and patient needs. Keep the letter to one page, and resist any temptation to open with the organization's mission or values, since busy readers stop before reaching the point.
How the MMHA 6800 Week 6 example is put together
The letter's Re line names the change and start date. The body opens with the change, lists old and new Saturday hours on separate lines, confirms other hours are unchanged, explains the reason, tells parents to call their pediatrician on Saturday mornings, mentions online wait times and repeats the emergency signs. A readability section reports a score near grade 5 using Flesch's method and describes two rejected drafts and a read-aloud check by front-desk staff. A rationale memo cites Berkman and colleagues on health literacy and explains four writing choices, then cites Conners and colleagues on directing families to the medical home and explains why the emergency warning appears in a letter about hours.
Where the marks sit in the MMHA 6800 Week 6 rubric
Patient letters are graded on clarity first. Putting the change and date at the start earns the foundation. Side-by-side old and new information, a plain reason and specific instructions for the affected time earn the core credit. Repeating essential safety information shows judgment. A readability check with a named method, plus a real-reader check, shows the student verified the letter rather than assuming it was clear. The rationale should connect each choice to evidence about readers. Professional letter format, with a signature and contact number, is expected. Citations belong in the rationale, not the letter itself, and the reference list should be complete.
MMHA 6800 Week 6 help from the desk
Patient letters often begin with the organization's values and bury the change. Start with the change. Use the fewest words that still answer what, when and what do I do. Put numbers on their own lines. Tell people where to go during any gap. Read the letter aloud; if you stumble, rewrite it. Run a readability check, but also ask front-desk staff whether it sounds like them. Keep the safety message. If your organization needs to tell patients about a change, our writers can draft a plain-language letter and a short rationale your manager can approve quickly. Print it and read it on a phone screen too, since that is where most families will see it.
Get a MMHA 6800 Week 6 example written to your instructions
Describe the change your letter must announce, the audience and any required elements, and attach the prompt and rubric; the letter is written plainly with its readability check documented. First letter free, in 24 to 48 hours. The clinic, the families and the Saturday hours are invented, and no actual patient list informed the draft.
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MMHA 6800 Week 6 questions, answered
Where can I find a free MMHA 6800 Week 6 sample paper?
The patient letter, its readability check and the rationale memo are posted in full on this page.
What change does the MMHA 6800 Week 6 letter announce?
Saturday walk-in hours moving one hour later, while Sunday and weekday hours stay the same.
What readability level does the letter reach?
About grade 5 on the Flesch-Kincaid scale, with a reading ease score near 80.
What should parents do on Saturday mornings?
Call their child's own doctor's office first, since many have Saturday morning hours or a nurse line.
Why repeat the emergency warning in a letter about hours?
A letter about when the site is closed is exactly when parents may wonder where else to go.