WHEN EXERCISE IS THE PRESCRIPTION, PATIENTS HEAD TO THIS ‘ANTI-GYM’ .
Live Well was inspired by provinces’ lack of programs for patients with chronic illnesses
Not many 53- year- olds with Type 2 diabetes are eager to start exercising if the last time they broke into a cardio- induced sweat was high school gym class.
That observation inspired Sara Hodson to launch Vancouverbased Live Well Exercise Clinic five years ago. The former cardiac nurse was moved to create a new style of “anti- gym” after becoming discouraged with the limits of provincial health- care regimes across the country.
About 1.6 million Canadians are living with heart disease or the effects of a stroke and 80 per cent of premature cases could be prevented if people had healthy lifestyles, according to according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. While doctors can steer patients with heart problems into subsidized exercise programs, they often aren’t open to people with the chronic conditions that lead to heart disease, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.
“I had been working in cardiac rehab for 10 years and I was frustrated by some of the things I saw, and it gave me the motivation to move out and pioneer the movement of exercise as medicine,” said Hodson, adding that doctors routinely prescribe exercise to their patients but many don’t follow through.
“People don’t come in excited by exercise. Most people come in to us having remotely exercised in their life, or having never exercised in their life.”
Hodson’s solution was to create a business that married fun, motivational exercise, with highly supervised tracking of clients’ medical progress. She started the business with $ 105,000, cashing in her $ 32,000 pension from 10 years of employment, borrowing $ 13,000 from family and receiving a government-guaranteed loan through RBC for $60,000.
While weight loss might be an upside, the real proof of success for Live Well members comes when they see their blood sugar levels decline and blood pressure drop, Hodson said.
The company’s success only accelerated last year when John DeHart came on board as a partner. DeHart founded the successful Nurse Next Door business in 2001. It is now one of North America’s fastest-growing home-care providers, with more than 130 locations and 4,000 employees.
“When my wife and I first came in, it was really clinical, because it was run by clinicians,” DeHart said. Before the partners considered franchising the business, he said, they needed to figure out how to “deliver a health- care service without members feeling that they were in a health-care setting.”
The business model needed some tweaks to become more approachable and encourage client retention rates — only 50 per cent of people were making it beyond six months.
DeHart and Hodson added two class leaders, dubbed “Joy Masters” for the 10- person hour- long fitness classes that run though the day at Live Well. They wanted cheerleaders with backgrounds in chronic disease, kinesiology and exercise programming to lead the class through sessions and monitor heart rates and blood pressure.
“Just like taking a dose of a pill, the dose of exercise we give — resistance training, cardiovascular training, is different based on someone’s medical condition and that is where that clinical piece is so important,” Hodson said.
The class takes a break at the 15- minute mark to share an inspirational quote such as: “It is not just about perfection, it’s about progress.” After 30 minutes, it breaks for a discussion on a health-related topic such as how exercise influences blood pressure.
Members are also encouraged to write down their achievements and those notes become the wallpaper in the studio. “What we know at Live Well is helping people to form those healthy hab- its so they can keep up that exercise,” DeHart said.
Hodson also reached out to local physicians to talk about the exercise- as- medicine movement and worked to build awareness and credibility with them, so they would refer patients to Live Well’s clinics. She also created custom medical records software so clinics can communicate with referring physicians on how their patients are responding to exercise.
The partners also asked referrals to commit to at least 12 weeks at $ 199 a month for twice weekly sessions, or $299 for three times a week, which takes clients to a level where they begin to see the results of exercise on their health and state of mind. Rates are reduced with longer time commitments, such as six months or a year. Sixmonth retention rates are now at 96 per cent and the company is on track to hit $ 1.2 million in sales this year from its three clinics.
Along the way, Live Well required another $400,000 in funding to build two more clinics, a customized electronic medical records system and its new franchise system. The funds came from shareholder and family loans, new government guaranteed loans, a secured line of credit and investment from DeHart and his wife Gayla, who are 50-50 partners with Hodson.
At the start, Hodson was connected with five physicians who regularly referred patients to her program. Now, Live Well has links to more than 300 referring physicians in the Vancouver area.
DeHart said the company will launch two to three new locations with its first franchise partners in the next six to nine months, and roll out the franchising system when those units are successfully up and running.
Live Well also plans to expand into the U. S. by the end of 2018 and will spend the next two years building out the model in B.C., Alberta and Ontario. The partners are aiming to have 68 Live Well Clinics across North America by the end of 2019.
“The U. S. health-care market is prime for our business, so success will really come down to finding the right partner,” said DeHart.