Connecting Health Clubs to Healthcare Through Physician Exercise Referrals [Podcast Series]
[:51] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Dr. Greg Degnan
Medical Director of Atlantic Coast Athletic Clubs and associate clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at UVA.
Dr. Degnan maintains a clinical practice in orthopedic surgery.
[1:18] Making a physician exercise referral program successful
“First and foremost, these programs have to be a win-win-win: the patient has to be able to benefit from it, not just in the short term but in terms of modifying their behavior for long term change; the physician has to see that and believe that the program can effect change for their patient; but the person administering, whether you are a fitness club or a personal trainer who is an entrepreneur, you have to monetize this.”
“Without that relationship with the medical community, you can have the greatest program in the world, you can have the greatest people there to administer it, but you have to recognize that this population does not come in of their own accord, that is why we are getting them through physician referred programs. So what we have to do is convince their gatekeepers, the medical professional, that we have something to offer. You have to have all three of those components in place to have a successful program.”
[6:35] Communicating wins and successes to the patient and referring physician
“We have those who are very interested in very specific outcomes. They want to know metrics. They want to know weight loss, they want to know blood pressure, they want to know how many times this individual actually showed up. Are they actually using the program?”
“For those physicians who want metrics, we are collecting them and we do give them a midpoint and an endpoint letter telling them how the patient is doing in terms of number of visits, BMI, weight...A1C.”
[10:08] Cost and return on investment of physician exercise referral programs
“30-35% of our membership base are current graduates of our medical programming. And this is a population that no one else in the industry is able to get to. This is our differentiator. So it makes us huge money. But we lose on every patient who walks through the door. Where we make it back is in the memberships which, by the way, are long term memberships.”
“You are going to see the return on the investment. But there is an investment. And it is a bit of a leap of faith. Because you have to make this affordable for the patient, or the physician will not refer. And yet you have to make it a quality program with quality people or you won’t get results.”
[13:55] Building relationships between healthcare and health & fitness
“You have to create a perception for the medical community and patient population that you are a cut above and beyond what they perceive to be the ‘normal’ fitness industry.”
“The key with establishing those relationships in the medical community is finding champions in the healthcare community that will be your voice.”
[18:07] Building trust between healthcare and health & fitness
“Just as the healthcare world doesn’t necessarily trust the fitness world to ‘take care’ of their people, the fitness world doesn’t trust the healthcare world to recognize how important exercise is.”
“Healthcare is guilty of treating with prescriptions for pharmaceuticals, treating with prescriptions for surgical procedures, rather than treating with prescriptions for lifestyle change.”
[20:48] Shared cooperation between healthcare and health & fitness
“There are two huge things that could be done to bring these two industries together. First, on the fitness side, we really need to step up our certification game.”
“On the healthcare side, we need to get a generation of physicians who, as part of their medical education, receives training in exercise, better training in nutrition, and training in behavior modification.”
[24:31] Barriers of time, training, tools, trust in physicians making exercise referrals
“The best way to bypass the ‘time issue’ of a physician having to get familiar with your facility and your people is to have one of his or her peers say…’I trust my patients to them, you can trust yours to them.’”
“If you really want to break into the medical community...you need one of their own on your side telling them they can trust you.”
[27:30] COVID and health & fitness centers as essential
“We know that COVID impacts people more significantly with medical comorbidities, most significantly obesity. And yet, we have from the get go talked about health clubs being unsafe petri dishes. But the first thing we open up are restaurants and bars where they can go eat an oversized meal that will make them more obese and worsen their hypertension.”
“If there was any place that should have been opened in Phase I, it should have been the place you are going to go to become healthier to eliminate some of the risk. It shouldn’t have just been health clubs that were taking care of physician referred patients. At the end of the day, they should have all been opened in Phase I. Just with pretty strict requirements to which they were forced to adhere. But they should have been opened long before restaurants, bars, salons, and beaches, none of which contribute anything to your health, all of which give you additional health and exposure risk.”
“Until we have a vaccine, and we are six months at best from that, COVID isn’t going away. In six months, I can lose a fair amount of weight. I can get my diabetes pretty well under control. I can get my hypertension pretty well under control in six months. If we look at this as the long game, at the end of the day, one thing COVID has demonstrated to us, no matter what comes around, it hits people with chronic disease harder. And health clubs are the solution for chronic disease.”
