The COVID period saw elective surgeries being delayed or put through extended waiting periods. In a bid to improve engagement with this community, the team at HCC led by Casey Windshuttle, saw this as an opportunity to proactively engage this segment of patients and flip a challenging situation into an opportunity – the team devised holistic telehealth risk assessments to get a rounded understanding of the varied health risks associated with obesity, smoking, mental health and more the patients might carry.

They then devise plans and pathways to help these patients build a healthier lifestyle with help from GPs and relevant clinicians. As a result, an everyday health system interaction was transformed into an opportunity for behaviour change. In this talk, learn how the team:

• provide targeted, evidence-based wellness advice to patients with complex health needs sitting on the elective surgery waitlist
• developed coaching advice and healthcare pathways to support sustainable behaviour change 
• leveraging standardized wellness data to identify community health risk trends and educate clinicians on holistic patient wellness
• taking steps to build a digital-first, multi-channel patient engagement strategy to scale value from the “Patient Wellness” initiative