Marketing Health Coach Services

At most gyms and athletic clubs, for just a little extra a month you can hire a personal trainer to analyze your physical ability, construct a personalized exercise plan, and work with you to achieve your fitness goals. People who use personal trainers swear that they see better results than when they were training alone.

Now, a growing number of healthcare organizations are putting the personal trainer method to work for patients in the form of a health coach. This trend can put patients at ease, increase the continuity of care, improve outcomes, and encourage consumer loyalty.

The value of health coaching

Mercy Clinics in Des Moines, IA, instituted a health coach program in March 2011 in pursuit of the triple aim of improving clinical quality and outcomes, lowering costs, and realizing higher customer satisfaction. The health system appointed an RN to improve the care transition of high-risk patients—those who are admitted with pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary artery disease, and congestive heart failure.

"We recognized that our health care delivery system was really geared for acute episodic care and not for providing high quality chronic and preventive care." says Kelly Taylor, director of quality for Mercy Clinics. "Our quality committee charged us with redesigning the delivery system to improve our quality for patients with chronic disease. The health coaches were a key strategy implemented to devote time in the clinic to utilizing information from our disease registry to work with patients not meeting quality goals."

Quality of care is a major driver of health coach programs, says Patrick Buckley, president and CEO of PB Healthcare Business Solutions, a strategy and marketing firm.

"Health coaching, in addition to patient advocacy and navigation, provides customers with continuity before, during, and after engagement with the health system," he says. "This can help to keep them from leaving the system due to fragmented and disjointed coordination, as a more engaged and informed patient and a less-stressed care provider."

Health coaching is a relatively inexpensive piece of the ongoing shift in healthcare toward shared savings. "A strong advanced primary care program will be instrumental as we move in to ACO and shared savings reimbursement models," Taylor says. "Health care coaches are an integral part of the health care team that makes up advanced primary care here at Mercy Clinics." She cites the coaches’ training in self-management support and motivational interviewing, along with their skills in coordinating care for patients.

Where marketing comes into play

It makes sense that patients working one-on-one with a health coach will be better informed about their health and therefore more likely to follow their post-hospitalization regimen. But why does this matter to marketers?

The educated, on-the-mend patient who has had a positive experience with a health coach is a surefire brand advocate. "Health coaching strengthens the loyalty of consumers to using healthcare offerings," Buckley says. "Coached clients are a more committed to making improvements in their lifestyle behaviors, which leads to better outcomes. Customers also learn how to effectively navigate the health system, which results in increased client satisfaction with the health system."

Communicating the benefits of health coaches to patients and community members is as important as the role the coaches play themselves. While the medical community understands the importance of a health coach–like role under the medical home model, the general public may not be as informed.

Health coaching is backed up by real metrics on its efficacy. A three-year study by Duke Integrative Medicine, which certifies health coaches, found that health-coached participants had twice the reduction in inpatient admissions as non-coached participants.

Disseminating this kind of information lets patients know that your organization is on the forefront of improving care.

How to get the word out there

Health coach program information can be easily shared through traditional and nontraditional marketing channels—so long as the message is tailored accordingly.

Care providers are the primary means of promoting health coaching at Mercy Clinics. "Most of our promotion activities occurred within the office practice itself to the other members of the health care team—the doctors, mid-level providers, and nursing staff," Taylor says. "We encourage them to refer patients they identify as needing additional support to us, and because we are right there in the clinic, we can begin working with them immediately."

Mercy Clinics does a great job of explaining its health coach program on its homepage and a dedicated web page. The dedicated page intertwines details about health coaching with a case study of a diabetic patient who had trouble managing her blood sugar.

"Health coach Monica Vail, RN, helped [the patient] set goals—such as planning her diet and incorporating exercise into her daily routine and they continue to meet to discuss challenges and to help her remain focused," the page reads.

Explaining the value of health coaching in such an engaging way helps patients become more open to the idea, which, as the practice becomes more common, should lead to improved outcomes.

"Health coaching helps to empower consumers to become more accountable for their health status," Buckley says. "This is critical as we move toward accountable care organizations and population health management, where providers are paid not for how many procedures they perform, but for how they do in keeping patient populations healthy."