Comprehensive Strategy for Evaluation of Clinical Health Coaches in Chronic Disease Management

Abstract

Purpose: As chronic disease rises to the top of morbidity and mortality causes in the United States, improving chronic disease management, particularly at healthcare administration and patient engagement levels, becomes a rising public health concern. Clinical Health Coaches (CHCs) are an innovative role in primary care settings, collaborating with patients to improve patient outcomes. There is a need for best practices guidelines of the CHC role, as there is currently no standardized training program. Iowa Chronic Care Consortium (ICCC) developed a CHC training program which is being implemented in an Indiana Rural Health Association pilot program. This study seeks to develop an evaluation tool for ICCC training and its effectiveness in chronic disease management. Methods: An extensive literature review was performed on previous evaluations of similar health coach role implementation in chronic disease management. ICCC training was completed to further understand the training program. Results: A collaboration of the chronic care model and ICCC’s proposed CHC model was determined to be the most appropriate tool for evaluation. From these models, 5 key domains were identified including: patient engagement, self-management support, patient experience, patient satisfaction, and delivery system design. This comprehensive approach will allow for both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Discussion & Implications: These survey tools will be administered to both patients and CHCs as a part of an evaluation of ICCC training and its effectiveness. As a result of this study, the CHC program could be expanded to more primary care settings to improve health outcomes in chronic disease patients. Learning objectives: Design an evaluation tool for clinical health coach training in chronic disease management. Evaluate the effectiveness of clinical health coach implementation in chronic disease management in a primary care setting.