RICHMOND — Ron Hall contributed 63 pounds to the 4,595 pounds about 600 patients of Richmond Area Health Center lost in the last year.
Weight isn’t the only thing the 75-year-old Farmingdale resident has reduced. His blood pressure, high for years, is now under control, and he’s gone from taking five medications to just one.
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Those are the types of changes that can result from weight loss, according to Tom Bartol, a nurse practitioner and prime organizer of the yearlong weight loss program in Richmond.
Losing weight, and the resulting reduction in the need for medications and other health care services, can add up to real savings, Bartol said.
He said the estimated medical cost of obesity in the United States is $147 billion per year, and it increases individual annual medical costs by more than $2,800 per person.
In other words, losing weight not only makes people healthier, it also saves money.
“This is real health care reform,” Bartol said. “This is the way to improve health and lower the cost of health care.”
Hall said Bartol worked with him, constantly offering encouraging words even when he was overweight. Together the two found a way for him to lose weight and keep it off.
“Those medications I was on were killing me. Even though it was keeping me alive, it was taking its toll,” Hall said at a Tuesday celebration of patients’ weight loss. “Tom was able to find a solution. I hope and pray he can find a solution for you, too.”
For Hall, who said he had boxes full of diet books that failed to help him lose and keep weight off, part of the solution was limiting himself to 1,500 calories per day. That may not be what works for everybody, nor is that the program that helped so many patients lose so much weight in Richmond.
The program is rather simple.
In order to motivate and encourage patients to lose weight, the health center staff, every time a patient lost weight, would write the person’s first name and amount of weight lost on a paper star and post it on a large bulletin board at the health center.
The patient then would ring a bell, which, Bartol said, prompted applause from throughout the health center building.
Richmond patient Jeff Dugas said he has sought help from medical providers elsewhere in losing weight and for his diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, but never had success. He said Bartol’s positive manner and patience in talking with him about different things to try made a difference.
Dugas lost about 40 pounds and has gone from taking 13 pills to eight pills a day since coming to the health center.
“My health has really turned around since I came here,” he said. “I got 10 minutes a visit with my former physician. Here, it’s not rushed; it’s an active discussion, talking back and forth.”
Dr. Sheila Pinette, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said 63 percent of Mainers are considered obese. She credited the staff in Richmond for improving patients’ health through “a lot of support and a lot of heart,” but not a lot of money.
Sen. Seth Goodall, D-Richmond, a patient at the health center when he was growing up, said he hopes the program will be a model for the rest of the state.
Keith Edwards — 621-5647
kedwards@centralmaine.com
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