Promoting Patient Health
Through 2016

On the corner of my home computer is a small piece of paper cut from an old copy of Investor’s Business Daily (IBD). It contains IBD’s 10 Secrets to Success. In every issue is a “Top 10” list of items their experts encourage investors to review. But the advice is not specifically investment related; it is, in fact, investor related. The items listed below are keys to individual investor behaviors that, in sum, lead to success.

I keep that paper there to remind me of the value of continuous quality improvement. It’s a visual reminder of the value of working constantly to upgrade knowledge, skills, and abilities in a topic area. It reminds me of the value of naming the challenge, identifying steps in a difficult process, and ultimately finding the oft-untapped potential of renewed effort. All are key messages for those of us in the business of personal training. Changing human behavior and thought processes is critical for clinical success, yet we don’t yet have surefire ways to successfully manage the change.

Our world of evidence-based medicine is full of appropriate clinical pathways and rigorously identified guidelines for care, but critically it hasn’t fully unraveled how to make a human being change thoughts or behaviors to adopt those guidelines. Fortunately, our colleagues in psychology have researched this topic extensively. Below are some recommendations for helping patients approach changes they need to make. At this time of year, with a proper foundation, the oft-maligned New Year’s resolution might actually work.

Offer the following tips from www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201412/why-people-cant-keep-their-new-years-resolutions to help make patients’ health-related New Year’s resolutions successful:

• Focus on one resolution rather several and set realistic, specific goals. Losing weight is not a specific goal; losing 10 pounds in 90 days would be.
• Don’t wait until New Year’s Eve to make resolutions. Make changes occur every day as part of a yearlong process.
• Take small steps. Many people quit because the goal is too big and requires too much effort and action all at once.
• Have an accountability buddy — someone close to whom you have to report.
• Celebrate successes between milestones. Don’t wait for the goal to be achieved completely.
• Focus your thinking on new behaviors and thought patterns. You have to create new neural pathways in your brain to change habits.
• Focus on the present. What’s one thing you can do today, right now, toward your goal?
• Be mindful. Become physically, emotionally, and mentally aware of your inner state as each external event occurs, moment by moment, rather than living in the past or future.

For our patients, I’ve created a Top 12 calendar of health care-related items patients should review and constantly update. Encourage your patients to review these items monthly and, if necessary, spend time that month improving or updating habits or facets in that area. You might hand these out as a New Year’s gift to your patients; include both the calendar and the tips to keeping resolutions. Then as the year moves along, I’ll provide some updates to allow patients to go into more depth on specific areas.

Checklist

My preferred guide to recommendations specified for male and female patients aged 65 and older is available at www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/prevention/men_age,65plus/. Physicians may prefer other guides.

— Rosemary Laird, MD, MHSA, AGSF, is a geriatrician, executive medical director of senior services for Florida Hospital at Winter Park, and past president of the Florida Geriatrics Society. She is a coauthor of Take Your Oxygen First: Protecting Your Health and Happiness While Caring for a Loved One With Memory Loss.