Interview: Chalie Meyer
| Julie: | Hi Chalie. I am excited to visit with you today. Could you start by telling me about yourself, where you are from and what your role is? |
| Chalie: | I am a clinical health and wellness coach from southeast Iowa. I currently am the only health and wellness coach at Great River Health System in West Burlington, IA. It’s a fairly large hospital of roughly 2000 employees. I work mostly with family practice clinics and we have about 25-30 physicians at all times, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get referrals from orthopedics or cardiovascular, etc. |
| Julie: | How long have you been in your position? |
| Chalie: | Since I graduated the Clinical Health Coach training in May, 2017. |
| Julie: | Do you have a nursing background? |
| Chalie: | No, actually I don’t. I did a lot of office work for the hospital and I knew right away, once I researched the opportunity, that it was my dream job. |
| Julie: | Tell me about the patients you are working with and what you are doing with them. |
| Chalie: | I work with patients with severe diabetes, metabolic syndrome, coronary artery disease. I do like to see my patients in person once a week. I have found that they have a lot more success when you are getting that face-to- face interaction rather than telephonic. I still do that of course, but see a lot more success when they come into the clinic. I spend up to 30 minutes with each patient. |
| Julie: | How many patients do you see that come in on a regular basis? |
| Chalie: | 75-100 active patients. |
| Julie: | So, this is the first time you have worked with patients one-on-one like this? |
| Chalie: | Yes, it absolutely was. I worked the front desk for a clinic and the back office. I did cashier and random office work. This is my first experience in a one-on-one setting. |
| Julie: | What did you find that most excited you about the value of health coaching? |
| Chalie: | I think the most exciting thing about health coaching is the ability to help reverse chronic diseases. When a patient gets to come off of insulin because I was their support system and helped them achieve their goals (to be non-diabetic) that’s a great feeling! |
| Julie: | Can you highlight a couple of skills that you developed as a result of your Clinical Health Coach® training? |
| Chalie: | Sure. The most impactful is how to actively listen and meet the patient wherever they are in the process. I don’t judge them because I want to build that trust. I always try to be empathetic, but not let them know that I am not trying to fix them. To quote a phrase I took away from the CHC training, “The biggest un-tapped resource in health care is the patient”. |
| Julie: | That’s fantastic. I’m glad that stayed with you! What has been a useful skill for you in getting your patients to create their own plan? |
| Chalie: | The power of using open ended questions. It sounds silly because it’s so simple. However, learning how to ask questions that allows the patient to think for themselves and really have passion to answer. That’s been huge! This program has really helped me personally as well. Talking to people, listening and not judging. |
| Julie: | What have your patients taught you in your experience? We love hearing success stories. |
| Chalie: | It was August, 2017 when I first met this particular patient. The day that the doctor called me in to talk with him, he was experiencing chest pain. He was a non-compliant diabetic. He was in for his six month follow up. His A1C was 10.7, his triglycerides were over 1200 and his cholesterol was 247. We sent him to get a cardiac procedure and he was admitted to the hospital the next day. When I went to see him we established a plan for him to start seeing me once a week. Currently, he has found a will to live, whereas before he didn’t really care. |
| Julie: | How did that happen? What changed in him? |
| Chalie: | He had just had a new grandbaby, which had a lot to with it. Also, he had never had any support before, or a reason/accountability. When we met he was eating a lot of junk food and drinking 12 bottles of soda a day. Currently, he doesn’t consume either one and and has been exercising. He checks in once a week with me and his triglycerides are currently down to 200 and his A1C is at 5.5. His total cholesterol is at 130. |
| Julie: | That’s amazing! How long did that take? |
| Chalie: | 5 months. He feels so much better he started mowing all the lawns in town because he had so much energy! |
| Julie: | In growing world of population health, how did this training equip you? |
| Chalie: | It has really opened my eyes to all the community resources. How I can best help my patients reach their outcomes. For example: bus times, maps of trails, grocery store tours. Our community works very well hand-in-hand. |
| Julie: | How are you able to track outcomes? |
| Chalie: | We use an excel spreadsheet. We are working on using an electronic survey to gather results from our patients and track data. I have statistics from my past patients year of A1C results, BMI, and exercise results. The survey will also help me understand what I am doing for my patients that is well received and what, if anything, that I could do to be better. |
| Julie: | What advice would you share with other colleagues who might be considering Clinical Health Coach training? |
| Chalie: | I’m telling everybody about it, all of the time. I say, go for it! It will be one of the best decisions not only for your career, but also for your personal life. I have applied many things I have learned from the training to my life outside work. |
| Julie: | We love to hear that coaches find their skills useful in their personal lives! What other skills do you find yourself using with your patients? |
| Chalie: | The SMART goals. S-specific, your goals need to be specific as possible. M-measurable, make them realistic, A-achievable, again making them realistic. Setting short term goals first. R-relevant, does it seem worthwhile and is this the right time. Am I able to help you or do I need to refer you to someone else. T-time specific. Can I do this in 3 weeks or 6 weeks? |
| Julie: | Before we wrap-up are there any other patient success that you would like to share? |
| Chalie: | Yes! We recently had a non-compliant patient come in for her 3 month diabetes follow up. Her A1C was 12.5. I sat with her for over an hour and evoked change talk and she came out of the appointment feeling more in control and realized she really wanted to work on things. We set goals for her every week and now 3 months later her A1C is 5.1. |
| Julie: | Your patients are coming in every week, which means they are really committed. |
| Chalie: | Yes, of course not all of them do and that is the toughest part. Some patients are not ready to change and no matter how hard I try, I have to remind myself…it’s not my fault. |
| Julie: | Sounds like you are having much success! Congratulations! |
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