Supporting workplace culture promotes the implementation of lifestyle medicine in health systems, finding research

Workplace culture plays an integral role in the successful acceptance of lifestyle -medicine programming within health systems, according to A new study Published in BMJ Open.

Researchers developed case studies of health systems with lifestyle medicine programming that had a diversity of size, location, payment model and patient population. More than 40 people from those health systems, including administrative leaders, doctors and other team members involved in Lifestyle medicine programs, participated in the data collection.

The study showed that synergy and supportive practices, such as providing resources to support the formation of cooperation groups (professional development groups, hiking groups, etc.), Visual advertising lifestyle medicine and the creation of a supporting environment by offering healthy vegetable meal options in cafeteria’s the implementation of the implementation of the implementation of the implementation of the implementation of the Lifestyle medicine programming facilitates.

Participants described a supporting workplace culture as the key to implementing and supporting lifestyle medicine programs. This kind of culture “was jointly defined as one in which social resources were present, the physical environment supported lifestyle medicine and colleagues who deal with lifestyle medicine.” Verbal, written and unwritten communication of important values ​​such as trust, gratitude, cooperation and optimism also indicated a supporting workplace culture.

John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Professor Joel Gittelsohn, Ph.D., MS, Senior researcher in the study, called the findings “incredibly informative and useful”.

“As more health systems lifestyle -medicine -services integrate, the experiences and best practices of people with a successful implementation of lifestyle medicine can offer models that inform the efforts of other systems,” Dr. Gittelsohn, “The Case Study approach was crucial for developing a nuanced and contextual rich image of the successes and challenges related to the experience of every system with lifetime of life.”

A growing number of health systems, including NYC Health + Hospitals and the US Army, turn to evidence-based lifestyle medicine to provide the entire person and to focus on the Quintuple target of better health results, lower costs, improved patient satisfaction, improvement of the provider and approval of the provider. There are now 116 members of the health systems from 38 states in the American College of Lifestyle Medicine’s Health Systems Council.

“One thing that is clear from the findings in this article is that strong leadership support and a uniform organizational approach for the implementation of lifestyle medicine is a necessary and powerful facilitator,” Dr. Gittelsohn. “Health systems that deliberately support proponents of lifestyle medicines and promote healthy lifestyle behavior throughout the organization are seen as ‘Walking the Walking’, which helps to achieve buy-in of both clinics and patients.”

Lifestyle Medicine is a medical specialty that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to treat chronic conditions, including, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and obesity. Lifestyle medicine-certified clinicians are trained to use evidence-based, whole person, prescribed lifestyle change to treat such disorders intensively and, when they are used intensively, often turn around. Applying the six pillars of lifestyle medicine, a whole diet, plant-preached eating pattern, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, positive social connections and the avoidance of risky substances also effective prevention for these disorders.

Offered by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine