Abstract
<strong>Background:</strong> Wellness program is a service provided by Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) to deliver an exercise program dedicated to patients with unhealthy lifestyle. Failing to cancel health care appointments in advance “no show” results in a vacant appointment slot that cannot be offered to other patients, which in turn will have an adverse impact on management plan and expected health outcome measures. <strong>Objectives:</strong> The purpose of this study is to implement a patient-centred care (PCC) program as an interventional approach to engage patients in changing behaviour and to encourage self-awareness to improve health status. Another aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of an appointment reminder system (either short message service (SMS) or telephone call) on completion rate of the 12-week Wellness program. <strong>Methods:</strong> Amongst 112 patients, 50 participants (age: 49.9 ± 12.56 years; height: 1.61 ± 0.08 m; body mass: 75.06 ± 15 kg; body mass index (BMI): 28.66 ± 3.51 kg/m<sup>2</sup>) completed two surveys as part of the PCC program. The first survey was regarding the appointment reminder’s method preference. Accordingly, the demanded reminder system has been implemented as per patients’ preferences and then the rate of completion of the 12-weeks-wellness-program has been compared to the months preceding the intervention to demonstrate the effectiveness of this new reminder system. Towards the end of the study, a second survey on patients’ satisfaction level with regard the new reminder system has been completed. <strong>Results:</strong> The PCC program showed that majority of the patients were in favour of an appointment reminder system through SMS text message and telephone calls. Implementing this tool based on patient preference resulted in a high improvement of the completion rate of the Wellness program. <strong>Conclusions:</strong> This study provides insight on the efficacy of implementing a PCC program in Wellness Centre as well as the effectiveness of an appointment reminder system in improving the completion rate of Wellness program in a primary health care facility. Completing the Wellness program may lead to improved lifestyle behaviour and health outcomes by complying with international physical activity recommendations from the American College of Exercise Medicine (ACEM) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Highlights
Active engagement of patients is increasingly recognized as an integral part of health care system
A meta-analysis of 92 studies showed that the effectiveness of exercise related to body morphology is not seen until 12 weeks of continuous training (Peterson et al 2011), body mass index (BMI) changes after 16 weeks and changes related to blood sugar markers, fasting blood glucose and HBA1C are seen from 24 to 36 weeks while changes related to cardiorespiratory fitness (Vo2 max) may be seen within 8 to 18 weeks (Peterson et al 2011)
According to American College of Exercise Medicine (ACEM), the effect of exercise on total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol is evident when 250 to 300 minutes of exercise is performed per week where LDL cholesterol is expected to reduce by 5 to 8% in 12 to 16 weeks of exercise duration (Westman et al 2002)
Summary
Active engagement of patients is increasingly recognized as an integral part of health care system. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to implement a patient-centred care (PCC) program as an interventional approach to engage patients in changing behaviour and to encourage selfawareness to improve health status. Another aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of an appointment reminder system (either short message service (SMS) or telephone call) on completion rate of the 12-week Wellness program. Results: The PCC program showed that majority of the patients were in favour of an appointment reminder system through SMS text message and telephone calls Implementing this tool based on patient preference resulted in a high improvement of the completion rate of the Wellness program. Completing the Wellness program may lead to improved lifestyle behaviour and health outcomes by complying with international physical activity recommendations from the American College of Exercise Medicine (ACEM) and the World Health Organization (WHO)
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