Mercy Clinics

A subsidiary of Mercy Medical Center-Catholic Health Initiatives located in the metro Des Moines, Iowa area, Mercy Clinics includes 27 primary care and specialty clinics. Each clinic employs nurse coaches to educate patients and support them in meeting health goals. Staff and clinicians at Mercy will build on this existing resource to create a shared decision-making program centered on the health coaches.

 

Coaches will distribute decision aids during face-to-face meetings with patients, answer questions, and encourage patients to use the videos and booklets. After patients view the decision aid, they will meet with the provider to ask questions and discuss any concerns about their medical decision. Coaches will help patients complete surveys on knowledge and feelings about decision-making both before and after use of the decision aids. Finally, the coaches will enter and collate survey results.
Each clinic site will have a designated physician to champion the project and help address any barriers. The project team will evaluate the program’s effectiveness by assessing data on claims, overall cost of care, and the types of services used.

 

The project will begin at four Mercy Clinic pilot sites. At three of the sites, patients will be offered one of six decision aids (on the topics of hip osteoarthritis, knee osteoarthritis, acute low back pain, chronic low back pain, spinal stenosis, and herniated disc). At the fourth site, patients will be offered decision aids about abnormal uterine bleeding, managing menopause, and uterine fibroids. In the future, project leaders plan to add a decision aid on advanced directives as well. For more information about this implementation project, please contact Del Konopka, Clinics’ Education Coordinator, at dkonopka@mercydesmoines.org.