Engaging patients in a therapeutic partnership to empower and inspire change
Information for Referring Providers
7 of the 10 leading causes of death can be attributed to modifiable lifestyle choices such as poor diet, physical inactivity, mismanaged stress, and more. Luckily most chronic diseases and conditions can be managed simply by improving lifestyle habits. In fact, most national health organizations recommend therapeutic lifestyle change as a “first line” as a standard of care for chronic diseases.
Evidence has clearly shown that many patients can achieve goal levels without medications with therapeutic lifestyle changes. Furthermore, most first line treatments are less expensively than most medications and, unlike single drug therapy, favorably impact multiple disease risk factors.
Unfortunately, significant time investments are needed to design and oversee these highly personalized and professionally supervised first line plans and to provide the targeted education that must accompany such programs. Most physicians simply do not have the luxury of time.
To answer this growing demand, many person-centered practices are incorporating the services of registered dietitians and licensed nutritionist in order enhance patient outcomes, increase patient satisfaction, and add value to the practice.
Smaller practices not staffing dietitians in-house often build relationships with independent nutrition practices in the community to ensure that their patients receive the needed first line therapy personalized interventions and appropriate nutritional education for the.
I have collaborated with larger practices and smaller independent providers in a variety of ways to help ensure biomarkers improve and that important health outcomes are met.
Since some doctors prefer that I come to the office for patient convenience, I do offer in-office services. I also form referral relationships with independent providers and smaller practices. Please see details below.
Contract Medical Nutrition Therapy for medical practices:
Appointments will be scheduled during specific hours on certain days of the week. Varous agreements are available from guaranteed weekly or monthly office hours to pay-per- service (pre-scheduled and cancelation protected). In addition to one on one patient serices, optional services include
- Attendance to multidisciplinary team meetings
- Lunch-n-learn seminars
- Nutrition presentations
- Education for staff
- Group programing
- Mindful eating meal groups
- Content for bulletin boards, newsletters, promotional programs, and health campaigns.
Establishing Referral based relationships for Medical Nutrition Therapy
- Patients can schedule appointments themselves by visiting the website, emailing, or calling to determine which service best suits their needs.
- Clients can also be contacted directly if contact information, basic health information and demographics, reason for referral, lab results, and related treatment information are provided.
- Weekly, biweekly, or monthly phone calls for collaboration will be provided to maximize collaborative efforts. If needed, progress notes can be provided as well.
- Additional add on services available for collaborative practices include regular multidisciplinary team meeting attendance, for additional services such as educational lectures for patients, group facilitation, staff/ medical education, and content creation.
