Exercise is Medicine®: A Standard in the Clinical Setting
Prescribing physical activity (PA) in the right “dosage” is a highly effective prescription for the prevention, treatment and management of more than 40 of the most common chronic health conditions encountered in clinical practice. EIM encourages health care providers to assess and record PA as a vital sign during patient visits and to conclude each visit with an exercise “prescription” and/or referral to a certified health fitness professional or allied health professional for further counseling and support.
Health Care Providers
Making a Difference in Your Health Care Setting
One of the most important decisions your patients will make regarding their overall health is to incorporate regular physical activity (PA) into their lives. Your encouragement can be a powerful influence in this decision.
EIM’s step-by-step Health Care Providers’ Action Guide will help you integrate physical activity into your practice. The HCP Action Guide provides an implementation framework to help you utilize all the members of your clinical team to:
- assess the current PA level of your patient;
- provide brief advice and/or write an exercise prescription
- refer your patient to physical activity resources (programs, places, professionals, or self-directed resources).
The Rx for Health series of patient handouts provides supporting information to patients with various medical conditions and for sedentary adults, older adults, teens and children.
FAQs
Know the basic national physical activity recommendations and share these with your patients. At minimum, encourage your patients to decrease their sedentary time and integrate short periods of activity over the course of a day (walking, standing, any and all movement, etc). Provide the EIM Sit Less. Move More. handout. Every active minute counts!
Have your medical assistant assess physical activity using the Physical Activity Vital Sign (PAVS) before you enter the exam room. Two questions, simple math, and bam!
- Review the national physical activity guidelines.
- Use the Rx for Health series for patients with certain medical conditions or age groups.
- Use the Exercise Prescription pad for easy communication.
Studies show that brief physician counseling can induce a small, but significant increase in the number of patients meeting physical activity (PA) recommendations particularly among those at risk for cardiovascular disease. Repeat PA prescriptions help maintain this effect and referral to appropriate PA resources or programs helps even more.
References: BM Pinto et al., Z Sabti et al., C Di Loreto et al., EA O’Connor et al.
Provider Resources
- Health Care Providers’ Action Guide
- Rx for Health Series
- Physical Activity Vital Sign (PAVS) Sheet
- IRS Code Section 213 How To Guide | Template for Submitting and Receiving Approval for Medically-Recommended Exercise
- Published Research Reference List
Health Care Systems
Population Health Management (PHM) is the key to improving health outcomes and reducing costs. PHM is the “proactive application of strategies and interventions to defined groups of patients across the continuum of care in an effort to improve the health of patients within the group at the lowest necessary cost.” The PHM Care Model stratifies patients, employees and underserved community residents into at-risk population groups to provide effective intervention and treatment programs for chronic disease.
