Education, simple measures keys to improving vets' hypertension care

• Improve measurement and documentation of blood pressure by using a nursing protocol.
  
  
• Initiate patient education efforts at visits and give patients a blood pressure wallet card so they could track their own blood pressures and goals.
  
  
• Distribute treatment guidelines on pocket cards to providers and display posters outlining treatment algorithms.
  
  
• Initiate audit/feedback of the provider and firm’s performance.
  
  

Roumie said reducing blood pressure and getting patients to their goal has the potential to reduce:

• stroke disease and death by 42 percent;
  
  
• heart disease by 14 percent to 20 percent; and
  
  
• heart failure by 30 percent to 50 percent.
  
  

The estimated 2005 prevalence for high blood pressure in the United States was 73 million (about 34 million men and 39 million women). One in three U.S. adults has high blood pressure, according to the American Heart Association’s Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics – 2008 Update.

Benefits derived from the study can be implemented at other hospitals both VA and non VA; however, each healthcare system “must do some work on the front end to understand what barriers to care exist, specifically, for their own system,” Roumie said.

The research was funded through the local VA medical center.

Co-authors are: Neesha N. Choma, M.D.; Robert L. Huang, M.D., M.P.H.; Robert S. Dittus, M.D., M.P.H.; and Kathy E. Burnham, R.N., M.A., B.S.N.

Editor’s Note: The American Heart Association’s high blood pressure Web site features educational information and resources that patients can use to help achieve their blood pressure goal, including a link to the Blood Pressure Management Center of Microsoft’s HealthVault. For information about high blood pressure and to access the Blood Pressure Management Center, visit www.americanheart.org/hbp.

Statements and conclusions of abstract authors presented at American Heart Association/American Stroke Association scientific meetings are solely those of the abstract authors and do not necessarily reflect association policy or position. The association makes no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or reliability.

NR08-1055 (QCOR 08/Roumie)