UnityPoint Health - Meriter - West Washington Clinic

With the UnityPoint Health – Meriter nutrition services program, you will receive nutrition counseling on topics such as meal planning, appropriate food choices, portion sizes and reading food labels.

Good nutrition is one of the basic building blocks of living a healthy life. Too often, we know what we "should" eat, but have a hard time following through on a daily basis. At Meriter, we believe that you can have a healthy diet and eat delicious foods. We also know that only having strict goals is not the best way to lose weight or improve health. Nutrition plans should be well balanced, incorporate safe, healthy guidelines and be specialized according to the wants and needs of the individual.

Our registered dietitians provide medical nutrition therapy for a wide variety of diseases and conditions, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease treatment and prevention, weight management and digestive health.

Medical nutrition therapy focuses on diet and lifestyle changes that can prevent or reduce your health risks. Working together as a team, you and your dietitian will develop a plan tailored to your nutritional and medical needs. Your dietitian will act as your guide down the path to nutritional wellness and improved health and quality of life.

During a meeting with a Registered Dietitian, you can expect to:

• Receive guidance in adopting a healthy eating plan to manage a specific health issue
• Develop a plan and set attainable goals that fit into your lifestyle
• Learn strategies to manage weight, as well as, learn the basics of a healthy diet to promote health and prevent disease
• Address and remove barriers to make it easier to change behaviors
• For many patients, we recommend the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid: Mediterranean Diet Pyramid

To refer a patient to Nutrition Counseling, please complete and submit the attached form.
Nutrition Counseling Therapy Referral

To refer a patient to Medical Nutrition Therapy, please enter the order into MeriterCare or complete and submit the attached form.
Medical Nutrition Therapy Referral

RN Care Coordinators (RNCC) contact patients within 2 business days of discharge from the hospital, then follow their care for 45 days. With the goal of preventing hospital readmissions, RNCCs assess patient's health status, provide education to patients and their families, reconcile medications, ensure appropriate follow up with Primary Care Physicians and/or specialists and assist with referrals to specialists. RNCCs also communicate and collaborate with specialty clinics, Primary Care Physicians, clinic RNs, social workers, and UW Health APNPs who oversee the care of patients.

Helping Educate and Link the Homeless (HEALTH) program serves as a bridge for unhoused individuals who are uninsured, unemployed, or disconnected from medical and other community services. HEALTH's focus is to connect patients to care and to overcome the barriers preventing patients from continued health care.

The HEALTH Program offers these services at locations throughout our community, adhering to the street medicine model that has remained the core of the program. HEALTH provides care to patients where they are, including but not limited to shelters, clinics, and in our community.

HEALTH's focus is on medical care and will work with our community's homeless services agencies to ensure patients are getting the full array of services available to them.

• The Community Resource Specialists and Social Work team works closely with the clinic providers, who send referrals based on psychosocial needs of their patients. This team provides resource linkage, complex care coordination, and connection to community supports as needed based on the patient.
• They operate out of the primary care clinics, the therapies departments, NICU-follow-up and work closely with the Behavioral Health Consultant team.
• This team also helps facilitate Advanced Care Planning and helping patients completed Health Care Power of Attorney documentation.