Lifestyle Medicine
Every healthcare provider should take a good, long look at how to tap into the increasingly important profit generator of nutritional counseling. As the American population becomes more overweight with each passing year, the need for proper nutritional counseling becomes more necessary if we, as a nation, have any hope of restraining the increases in healthcare costs in the future. Building a reputation as a healthcare provider who achieves noticeable health results will attract more patients to your practice while you improve practice revenue.
Wednesday, 09 January 2013
Written by Sherry Krueger
|
Do You Know What Living a Healthy Lifestyle Really Means? |
With the turn of the New Year here in Phoenix, AZ the HNA staff has taken the initiative yet again to do better for ourselves. Living healthier is a universal concept: one we all inherently claim to know, but one that so many of us struggle with time and time again. So, really, how many of us actually understand what we’re doing? With the abundance of information (and false advertising!) available, each step in the direction of a healthy lifestyle could just as soon be dismissed as another half-informed shot in the dark.
There is a watershed philosophical decision that is being debated in America. At issue here are two diametrically opposed world viewpoints. On one hand is individual freedom and responsibility on which this country was founded. On the other hand is what is determined to be the best course for society in general as determined by the government. And further more, are these ideals mutually exclusive? We are talking about Individualism vs. Socialism. The issue? If American taxpayers are paying for part of certain American’s food through the food stamp program, should the government be allowed to dictate which food items…
When you discuss improving your patient’s health through dietary changes there are a couple of things that you should consider. The most important one is the difference between dietary information and nutritional information. To most patients and far too many healthcare providers the terms are synonymous. While there is some overlap of the two terms, they do not have the same meaning. Strictly speaking, dietary information and dieticians refer to and are concerned with macro-nutrients: calories, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and perhaps hydration. Dietary counseling refers to counting calories, balancing carbohydrates with proteins and fats, and determining the best way to…
Once you realize that many of your patients will benefit from dietary supplementation, the next step is to make sure that your patients get supplements that actually benefit them. It's not my intent to make this article a seminar on nutritional supplements, but there are several pertinent facts that should be emphasized so that you and your patients get the maximum results of any supplements that you recommend. If your patient’s don’t see results from your recommendations then they will lose confidence in your abilities and you will lose confidence in dietary supplements, even though your patient’s would benefit from…
Nutritional counseling and supplementation is a vital component of a Lifestyle Medicine (LM) practice. But it is much more than just prescribing a multi-vitamin supplement for your patients. Proper nutrition is best achieved through proper diet, knowing what to eat and, just as importantly, knowing what not to eat. The field of nutrition is still in its infancy and there is so much more that will be discovered in the future. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t include nutritional products in your treatment program. By applying what we already know about nutrition to your patients you can greatly improve their…
Lifestyle Medicine is defined as the application of environmental, behavioral, medical and motivational principles to the management of lifestyle-related health problems in a clinical setting. In practice it means that by improving overall healthy living, the patient can prevent, manage, or even reverse a wide variety of diseases. It is not a new concept for many alternative healthcare providers, but in the world of allopathic medicine it is a relatively new idea. Only recently has there been a big push to prevent diseases by the medical establishment. There has been no incentive for doctors, or anyone in the medical field,…
Since ‘preventive’ care and procedures is the buzzword of the day in healthcare, now is the time to increase nutritional supplements used in your practice. Vitamins and other nutritional supplements will improve your patient’s health and improve your bottom line. But, you need to be knowledgeable in the use of nutritional supplements, or have someone on your staff who is an expert in the field. Over the next several weeks I will discuss how utilizing nutritional supplements in your practice can benefit your practice and your patient’s health. There will be difficulties and challenge that you will face if you…
As you look for additional areas to increase the revenue for your practice, look to include retail sales of nutritional supplements to your existing patients. When you prescribe (recommend) nutritional support to your patients, you can make it convenient for your patients by stocking vitamins and other dietary supplements right in your office. Alternative healthcare providers have been doing this for years to increase their revenue and to ensure that their patients take home the appropriate nutritional supplements. Whether they actually take the supplements is another matter, but at least you’ve done what you can as their doctor.
As the healthcare climate in America continues to change, it becomes more important for the private practitioner to increase revenue streams for their office or clinic. One very important revenue stream that every practitioner can incorporate into their practice is dietary consulting and providing nutritional products for their patients. The manner in which the private practice healthcare provider includes nutritional advice into their practice will determine the success of expanding into the nutritional field. The sad fact of the matter is that most medical schools, and consequently most medical doctors, place very little importance on nutrition and healthy eating. To…
Tag Cloud
actually private physician future change denial improve treatment number provide provider through affect government doctors providers changes patients americans service doctor patient increase payment medicare reform services better health system physicians american practices people publisher personal revenue because should medicine information insurance healthcare business america marketing practice companies office medical
Physiciantrends.com
 |
 |
 |
 |
