ELDRIDGE Chronically ill patients have a new partner in the health care system here, and her goal is to try to provide them with a higher quality of care.

Carolyn Bjustrom, a registered nurse, is newly certified as a health coach at the Genesis Health Group offices in Eldridge. Health coaches are to be used by both Genesis Health System and Trinity Regional Health System in the Quad-City area to help individuals navigate their medical care path. The plan is to stress disease prevention and effective case management.

Health coaches are among the many changes that have occurred since the federal Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010. And its one of several changes identified by health professionals from Genesis, Trinity and the Good Samaritan Free Clinic in the Quad-Cities.

The changes are designed to lead to better, more affordable care, and the numbers appear to support that aim at least in the short term. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services projected this month that health spending in the United States will grow at very low rates through 2013.

The agency, an arm of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, estimates the rate at 4 percent on average, slightly above the historically low growth rate of 3.8 percent in 2009. The rate should accelerate to 7.4 percent in 2014 as major parts of the Affordable Care Act kick in, the centers reported.

While the recession has played a role in that trend, it also can be attributed to changes in how care actually gets to patients. That covers a wide range of the areas health care scene, but it is basically preventative, coordinated care with a focus that tries to keep people healthy in the first place.

Health coaches

Much of Bjustroms time as a health coach is focused on patients who have chronic conditions including diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic heart disease and hypertension. Before a patient arrives for an appointment, Bjustrom prepares a chart for the doctor, showing recommended care goals according to the persons condition.

After the office visit and at the doctors request, Bjustrom works with the patient on goals. If a person is ready to, say, make a change in their diet, she helps facilitate that desire. They write the goal down and then I either call them or they call me, she said.

She connects with patients by telephone, at the medical clinic, in the patients home or wherever the person chooses. Shes the one they talk to about a variety of concerns. Diabetic patients, for example, often have questions about the blood sugar readings they take daily, and Bjustrom will help them track various tests that are needed to stay well.

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Health coaches lead the way for new delivery of health care