Integrating Health Care and Nutrition: Tips for Managers

The medical community has long understood that health care and nutrition work hand in hand. A proper diet can prevent diseases; support development; boost mood and sense of well-being and, in some cases, even enhance life-saving medical treatments. Despite these advantages, it can be difficult for health care organizations to integrate nutrition science into their daily operations.

The U.S. health care system faces numerous challenges that may prevent providers from emphasizing nutrition. For example, many physicians don’t receive formal training on the subject. Additionally, a significant portion of the patient population doesn’t have access to nutritional food choices in the first place.

However, with training and education from a program such as App State Online’s Bachelor of Science (BS) in Health Care Management, health care professionals can help their organizations overcome these barriers and bring holistic well-being to everyone they serve.

What Is Nutrition?

To understand how health care and nutrition fit together, defining nutrition is important. More than just the study of food, nutrition is the science of how foods, drinks, supplements and other consumables interact with the body on a molecular level.

Molecular components of food, such as carbohydrates, proteins and lipids, all play important roles in the body’s essential functions. Nutrition professionals use their knowledge of these components to help people:

Understand how nutrition affects their overall well-being
Recognize gaps and deficiencies in their diets
Create sustainable nutrition plans based on their age, physical activity and other factors
Track their progress and meet their goals

Similar to nurses and doctors, nutritionists, dietitians and other nutrition professionals often need a license to practice. Licensing practices ensure consistency and integrity in the sector. They also help the general public approach nutrition specialists with a degree of confidence in their abilities.

What Is the Role of Nutrition in Health Care Management?

For many people, nutrition services are crucial to living a healthy lifestyle. However, nutrition also has many clinical and supportive applications in the health care industry.

Nutrition and Disease Prevention

In 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that almost 950,000 Americans died from strokes, diabetes and heart disease. These conditions, collectively known as cardiometabolic diseases, are among the leading causes of death in the United States.

Several risk factors associated with poor dietary habits increase the likelihood of cardiometabolic diseases, including high blood pressure, obesity and high cholesterol. While these diseases primarily damage the heart and circulatory system, they can also affect the liver, kidneys and nervous system. This means that surgeries and other treatments can be invasive and risky. Early detection and adherence to a heart-healthy or physician-prescribed diet can help people avoid these outcomes.

Nutrition and Disease Management

Nutrition not only plays a role in disease prevention, but it also helps people cope with existing health conditions. While this includes cardiometabolic diseases and other diet-related conditions, it also includes conditions that aren’t always related to diet, such as cancer.

According to a research review published in the Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition , up to 70% of people with cancer experience malnourishment. This can be the result of the disease itself, treatments such as chemotherapy or a combination of both.

While malnourishment can adversely affect anyone, people experiencing it while battling cancer are at risk for:

Infections and treatment-related complications
Delayed wound healing
Loss of muscle mass and function
Poor response to treatment

Because of these risks, many patients undergo medical nutrition therapy (MNT) to improve their quality of life and increase their chances of survival.

MNT is a medically informed diet that can help people manage symptoms, cope with harsh treatments and treat conditions through a combination of nutrition education and behavioral counseling. Prescribed for everything from diabetes to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), MNT is one of the most important examples of the relationship between health care and nutrition.

For people with cancer, MNT often includes taking vitamins and mineral supplements or eating a protein- and calorie-rich diet. However, a team of nutrition and medical professionals must carefully monitor and adjust patients’ diets.

Health Care and Life Stage Nutrition

As people age, their medical needs change. Pediatricians often check infants for signs of developmental issues. Geriatricians, doctors who specialize in senior care, typically keep an eye out for cognitive decline, joint problems and other issues associated with aging.

However, at every life stage, nutrition is often crucial to holistic well-being:

Infants often need vitamin D, iron, zinc and calcium for physical and cognitive development.
School-aged children and teens typically need a well-rounded diet of grains, fruits, vegetables and protein-rich foods.
Adults may need to start monitoring their cholesterol and blood pressure more closely and make changes to their diets to avoid chronic heart disease.
Seniors frequently lose muscle mass and bone density and may need to supplement their diets with more protein and calcium.

Health care providers who focus on specific populations must keep these factors in mind as they assess their patients and anticipate potential issues. Even if patients don’t require medical nutrition therapy, following age-appropriate nutrition guidelines can lead to an increase in quality of life.

Barriers to Integrating Health Care and Nutrition Services and How Health Care Managers Can Help

Years of research have provided plenty of evidence supporting the integration of health care and nutrition services. However, given the prevalence of diet-related chronic illnesses, there seems to be a serious gap in how that information is communicated and applied.

Everyone in the medical community can play a part in closing the gap, but health care managers are often positioned to take the lead.

Provider Education

According to survey results published in 2025 by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), only 45% of medical students reported that nutrition was covered via multiple courses or rotations. Moreover, just 17% of students stated that nutrition information was fully integrated throughout their curricula.

Fortunately, there are some ways to address this challenge that don’t require restructuring the entire medical education system. Health care managers can help providers learn more about nutrition by:

Facilitating training and continuing education opportunities about nutrition
Advocating for the hiring of nutrition professionals who can guide their colleagues and work directly with patients
Maintaining databases of resources about nutrition research

These measures can help health care providers learn about the basics of nutrition and diet-based health metrics that they can use when assessing patients.

Patient and Public Education

Every five years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) produces the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), a tool used to gauge the dietary and nutrition habits of individuals across various demographics. According to the latest published data, the USDA’s 2020 survey found that the HEI score for adults aged 19-59 was 57 out of 100. Children aged 2-18 scored 54 out of 100, whereas adults 60 and older scored 61 out of 100. These metrics indicate a significant gap between the USDA’s recommended guidelines and the U.S. population’s dietary habits. Educating the public on what constitutes healthy eating can help bridge this gap across all demographics.

While educating providers is a crucial first step, health care managers can support patient education by:

Ensuring that discussions about nutrition are part of assessment and care planning
Making easy-to-understand nutritional information available to patients in the form of pamphlets, websites and similar resources
Establishing relationships with local nutrition specialists so doctors can make referrals as needed
Coordinating public education initiatives with local government agencies, schools and other organizations

In addition to helping patients and the general public understand the importance of nutrition, educational resources can empower patients to become advocates for their own well-being.

Long-Term Dietary Support

Dietary changes can be hard to maintain over long periods of time — even when those changes directly affect people’s well-being. This may be especially true when patients get brief nutritional information in the doctor’s office and nowhere else.

Education and pamphlets are the beginning of dietary support, but managers of health care institutions can also implement certain measures that encourage ongoing discussions:

Staff training seminars can include sections about coaching, realistic goal setting and how to approach conversations about nutrition compassionately.
Intake paperwork can include questions about diet and overall well-being.
Even if resources are available elsewhere, managers can ensure that providers give information to patients directly. This can include giving them handouts or recommending ways to track their progress and find meal ideas.
Health care organizations can host support groups or provide information about local or online groups.

Along with clinical support, these resources can add a layer of social support to help patients improve their nutritional health.

Costs

Health care organizations strive to meet their patients’ needs at every level. However, designing and implementing nutrition support initiatives often requires large financial investments, and budgeting may prove challenging. Fortunately, evidence suggests that offering nutrition support services can be a sound financial decision.

In 2025, the medical group MassHealth produced the results of a survey of 20,000 members who were offered various nutrition services between January 2020 and March 2023. These services included home-delivered meals, produce prescriptions, food boxes and connections to federal nutrition program assistance.

The results revealed that program participation resulted in a 23% decline in hospitalizations and a 13% decline in emergency department visits compared with nonparticipating MassHealth patients. The survey also indicated that adults with more than 90 days of enrollment averaged around $2,500 less in health expenses.

What Skills Do Health Care Managers Need to Address These Issues?

Health care managers don’t have to be experts in nutrition to help their organizations integrate health care and nutrition services. While some familiarity with the topic is helpful, they can often make an impact by applying a few core administrative management skills.

Health Informatics and Research

Nutrition science is constantly evolving. While managers can turn to nutrition professionals for guidance, they’re often responsible for reviewing new research and finding ways to integrate it into their programs and policies. They also need to know how to review patient data to identify which nutritional services their communities need most.

Insurance Law and Policies

Nutrition services aren’t always billable to patients’ insurance. While the Affordable Care Act requires insurance providers to cover certain nutrition services, there are often exceptions. In many cases, these services are only covered when patients are at risk of or currently suffering from a chronic disease.

Health care managers who are knowledgeable about insurance policies can structure nutrition programs to make them accessible to as many patients as possible. For example, they can staff their organizations with the types of registered dietitians and other licensed professionals whose services are typically covered by insurance. They may also offer free nutrition resources, consultations and clinics to patients who may benefit from them but don’t qualify for insurance coverage. Administrators who aren’t able to offer these benefits at their facilities can foster relationships with other providers and organizations to help fill the gaps.

Marketing

For nutrition services to be effective, communities must be aware of them. When it comes to public nutrition education, health care managers should learn how to reach specific communities through print, social media and television ad campaigns. They may also need to coordinate efforts with local schools and advocacy organizations.

Financial Management

While nutrition programs can yield long-term financial advantages for health care institutions, it can take time for these gains to have a measurable impact. In the meantime, managers may have to work with tight budgets, monitor resource allocation and secure funding from private donors and government grants.

Personnel Management and Leadership

Doctors, nurses and other medical personnel often have more than enough duties to fill up their days. For nutrition programs to succeed, health care managers must ensure that their care teams have enough time and training to take on new initiatives. This may require reworking schedules and hiring more staff.

Additionally, managers and other administrators must ensure that staff members are enthusiastic about focusing more on nutrition. They may need to hold meetings, share data and coach staff about new measures and why they’re important from a clinical perspective. Throughout this process, supporting staff members and acknowledging their efforts is key.

Career Paths Combining Nutrition and Health Care Management

Roles that integrate health care and nutrition can have a significant impact on patient outcomes. Dietitians and nutritionists, a category that includes many of these positions, earned a median annual salary of $73,850 in 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Public Health Nutritionist

Public health nutritionists develop strategies to encourage communities to incorporate healthy nutritional habits into their everyday lives. They also analyze nutrition issues in different groups and tailor diet plans to address specific needs.

Wellness Coordinator

Wellness coordinators develop, implement and oversee programs to encourage healthy and nutritious behaviors for both public and private entities, often working for government agencies, schools or corporations. They may also develop initiatives to encourage wellness activities that promote healthy nutrition.

Clinical Nutrition Manager

Clinical nutrition managers develop nutrition plans to meet patients’ specific dietary needs. They collaborate with other health care professionals, such as physicians and nurses, to monitor dietary effectiveness and patients’ overall health progress.

Lead Providers to Success and Patients to Healthier Lives

Integrating health care and nutrition services takes creative problem-solving skills, thoughtful leadership and authoritative knowledge about health care management. Appalachian State University’s online Bachelor of Science (BS) in Health Care Management program can help you develop those talents wherever you are on your academic journey.

Housed in the Department of Nutrition and Health Care Management, this program gives students the unique opportunity to learn about the nuances of finance, law and leadership in the health care industry. The flexible online programming is designed to help students learn career-ready skills, participate in hands-on lessons and interact directly with their instructors and peers.

Reach out to the online admissions team today for more information about tuition, admissions requirements and App State Online’s long tradition of health care management education.

Recommended Readings

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Sources:

Association of American Medical Colleges, Nutrition in Medical Education Curricula: A Recipe for Increased Competency-Based Teaching and Learning

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Leading Causes of Death

Cleveland Clinic, Medical Nutrition Therapy

Cleveland Clinic, What Are Cardiometabolic Risk Factors?

HealthCare.gov , Preventive Care Benefits for Adults

Indeed, What Does a Wellness Coordinator Do? (With Responsibilities)

Indeed, What Is a Public Health Nutritionist?: Definition and Qualifications