The addition of a health coach to the patient care team could potentially change patients’ trust in their PCPs. For example, health coaching might ‘replace’ some of the trust-building interactions PCPs have their patients. By activating and empowering the patients to ask questions or disagree with their PCP, health coaching might undermine the provider–patient selleck inhibitor relationship and thereby reduce the level of patient trust. It is also possible
that health coaches could increase patients’ trust in their PCP, for example by improving learn more communication. We examined the impact of adding a health coach to the primary care team on patients trust in their PCP in the context of a randomized clinical trial of the impact health coach vs. usual care on control of
chronic disease. The Health Coaching in Primary Care (HCPC) study is a randomized controlled trial of 12 months of health coaching vs. usual care for low-income patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes, hypertensions, and/or hyperlipidemia with the primary outcome being control of diabetes, hypertension, and/or hyperlipidemia. A detailed description of the HCPC study design and methods has previously been published [18]. In this Mannose-binding protein-associated serine protease paper we report on the effect of health coaching on patient trust in, and satisfaction with, their PCP. The study was conducted at two federally qualified health centers (‘safety-net clinics’) in San Francisco between from March 2011 to May of 2013. Patients were considered eligible if they were between ages of 18 and 75, spoke Spanish or English, could be reached by phone, and had poorly
controlled diabetes (HbA1C >8.0%), hypertension (systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg for non-diabetic patients or ≥130 for patients with diabetes), or hyperlipidemia (LDL ≥ 160 mg/dl for non-diabetic patients or ≥100 mg/dl for diabetic patients). A total of 664 eligible patients were identified at the two clinic sites, of which 441 (66.4%) were consented and enrolled (see Fig. 1). After enrollment and completion of baseline measures, participants were randomized to the health coaching arm (n = 224) or the usual care arm (n = 217) by opening the next randomly ordered, sealed envelope.