Improving Patient and Provider Engagement in Hypertension Control

Abstract

Hypertension is the second leading cause of death and costs the United States over $130 billion annually. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid promote control through the star rating system and primary care reimbursement. The project site’s hypertension control rate for Medicare patients was 70%, with a goal of 85% or more, and the follow-up rate was only 30%. A need was identified to improve follow-up in Medicare patients with uncontrolled hypertensive. The project implementation included strategies to increase follow-up frequency, decreasing the number of prescribing and implementing a standardize protocol hypertension follow-up. The current approach includes increasing follow-up frequency, decreasing the number of prescribers, and implementing standardized protocols. In a 15-week implementation period, 238 Medicare patients’ charts were reviewed. Overall, the control rate improved from 70% to 95%. The follow- up rate improved to 75% of patients with a scheduled follow-up visit. Implementation of a standardize protocol in follow-up improved hypertension control among Medicare patients. Recommendations are to expand the project to other hypertensive patients in primary care. Increasing continuity, implementing hypertension follow-up protocol, and reinforcing to the providers to schedule a follow-up appointment were effective at improving hypertension control.