Medical Integration Precepts Part IV: Starting with a Baseline: General Membership Assessment

January 29, 2024

There’s an old saying – if you don’t know where you are, how can you know where you’re going? This holds true for a variety of reasons, especially when implementing medically integrated fitness programs that engage health providers, their patients, and community members. Successful medical fitness programs begin by knowing your participants’ starting point.

Some fitness centers offer a free “health assessment” to new members as part of an onboarding package. Others offer it for a fee. Still others don’t offer it all or do so only at a member’s request. These assessments can be hit or miss, lacking standardized protocols or are unsupported by the latest and best information. Frequently there is no follow-up, and the data gathers dust.

Providing health assessments for all incoming members is an important part of a comprehensive onboarding program, as they deliver baseline findings. Reviewing existing membership health statistics is vital to successfully completing the transition to a medically integrated fitness center. Frequent and consistent health assessments completed using standardized protocols capture both baseline and follow-up data. Instead of gathering dust, health assessment data successfully and safely guides members towards their health and wellness goals.

The next stop on our medical fitness journey will highlight the vital role data plays in creating and implementing evidence-based wellness and fitness programming.