How Peer Coaching Reduces Healthcare Costs
In three months, Better Health’s novel Ostomy Peer Coaching Program helped dozens of ostomates avoid unnecessary healthcare visits and measurably reduce their risk of anxiety and depression. In the following white papers, we’ll cover 1) how peer coaching can improve patient outcomes and also reduce healthcare costs and 2) how we can better understand this population's unmet needs and continue to design programs to improve their health outcomes.
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Our White Papers
You are reading a Preview of white paper #1:
Psychological and Health Impact of A Novel Ostomy Peer coaching Program
The most common type of ostomy was an ileostomy (51%), followed by colostomy (39%) and urostomy (9%). The top indications for ostomy were cancer or mass (37%) and inflammatory bowel disease (19%). Over 90% of participants had their original ostomy surgery at least 1 year ago. However, 7 (12%) had their original surgery or were hospitalized or had follow up ostomy surgery within the last 30 days.
Better Health’s Ostomy Peer Coaching program launched in March of 2021 — interim results show a reduction in utilization of care and improved health outcomes.
This interim report describes the impact of the program on 57 participants who completed peer coaching sessions and submitted 2-week follow up surveys by June 21, 2021.
Baseline survey responses indicated that a significant portion of the participants were struggling with general health, mental health, and adjustment to their ostomies. Nearly 1 out of 3 participants reported fair or poor general health and 39% reported high stress (8 or higher on a scale of 1-10).
Many participants were at risk of having anxiety (21%) and depression (26%) and 21% demonstrated moderate or severe psychological distress. Participants demonstrated the worst levels of adjustment to their ostomies in the areas of comfort with travel, depression related to their ostomy, and worries about sexual activity. Over 40% responded that they somewhat disagree, disagree, or strongly disagree that they feel free to travel as they want with their ostomy. Over half reported that they somewhat agree, agree, or strongly agree that they feel depressed about their ostomy and worry about accidents during sexual activity.
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You are reading a Preview of WHITE PAPER #2:
Opportunities for Improvement in Post-Acute Ostomy Care Through Peer Support
Roughly one-third of ostomates reported fair or poor general health as shown in Figure 2 and 36% were experiencing very high stress levels (reported 8 or higher on a scale of 1 to 10). In addition, 36% were at risk of having anxiety and 34% were at risk of having depression.
People with ostomies are an underserved population and experience significant health disparities that impact their quality of life, morbidity, mortality, and healthcare expenditure. However, these complications are highly preventable with greater clinical support in post-acute care.
In order to improve quality of life and ease of ostomy adjustment for ostomates, Better Health developed a proprietary Ostomy Peer Coaching Program, which launched in March 2021. This paper describes the baseline characteristics of peoplewho expressed interest in this program. Investigating the demographics, baseline health metrics, and topics of interest in this population can help us better understand their unmet needs and continue to design programs to improve their health outcomes.
Although most ostomates had at least one year of experience with their ostomy, many were still struggling with suboptimal mental health, quality of life, and ostomy adjustment. Roughly one-third of ostomates reported fair or poor general health. In addition, 36% were at risk of having anxiety and 34% were at risk of having depression. One out of 3 respondents showed moderate to severe levels of psychological distress.
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