Functional Medicine Patients and A State of Crisis
Many patients arrive at a Functional Medicine clinic in a state of crisis. This emotional distress inhibits change and diminishes the patient’s ability to communicate, remember important guidance and recommendations, and overall be a proactive participant in their care. This makes the medical provider’s role more challenging than it needs to be and, unfortunately, limits the success of patient outcomes as well.
Health Coaches Can Calm That Crisis
To address this issue, Kara and Dr. Nathan Morris, MD decided to flip the traditional implementation of a health coach upside down. They evolved the integration of a health coach model to maximize the effectiveness of Kara’s health coaching skill set. As a National Board Certified, Functional Medicine Health Coach, Kara became the professional to welcome new patients into the practice, drive the patients’ first encounter, and offer follow-up coaching sessions to assist patients in the change process. Dr. Nathan Morris, MD met with empowered new patients, rather than patients in emotional distress. The impact on the practice, staff, and patient outcomes were overwhelmingly positive and Kara was encouraged by thought leaders, Dr. Dan Kalish and Priya Kamani to help more practices benefit from implementing her unique coaching model.
Business Coaching Can Optimize Your Practice, Your Staff, and Your Patient Outcomes
Deciding to integrate a Health Coach is just one step toward success. Functional Medicine operates differently on many levels and to succeed, you must acknowledge these differences and shift your operations accordingly. Our Business Coaching services not only helps with Health Coach integration, but we also provide expert guidance on:
- Patient Entry Points
- Patient workflow
- Pricing
- Memberships
- Front and back-office systems design
- Technology integration
- Practice metrics
Kara Ware can provide a full practice audit to identify what’s working well and where there are areas for improvement. From there, we can develop a comprehensive business improvement plan, even working with you hands-on to provide 1:1 coaching, hiring and onboarding your own health coach, improved operations, team training, and more.
