The Health Literacy Style Manual - Covering Kids & Families

Abbreviations
Acronyms and other abbreviations are useful shorthand
for titles that we use all the time. But clients may not need
to learn the shorthand, and if they don’t really need to, it’s
better not to burden them with the task.
If you want to teach readers an abbreviation, write it first,
then write the full name afterward in parentheses. If the
document is lengthy, you might want to write it out again
somewhere in the document to reinforce the meaning.
Make sure that you’re teaching the abbreviation because
learning it will be useful for your readers, not just because
you’re used to it. When there’s no compelling reason to
abbreviate, write out the complete word or words (e.g.,
“Department of Health and Human Services”) instead of
using an abbreviation.
You’ll want clients to learn acronyms that are used all the time in your program.
P C P (Primary Care Provider)
H M O (Health Maintenance Organization)
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