Million Hearts®—Success in Blood Pressure Control
Helping patients achieve #BloodPressure control is one of our priorities. Million Hearts shares how we used performance incentives to better serve our patients.
Keeping blood pressure under control helps prevent heart attacks and strokes and saves lives. The Hypertension Control Challenge recognizes clinicians and health systems that have excelled at controlling blood pressure. The Hypertension Control Champions use evidence-based strategies to achieve exemplary blood pressure control rates. As of 2017, CDC has recognized 83 clinicians, health care practices, and health systems as Million Hearts® Hypertension Control Champions for achieving blood pressure control rates of at least 70%.
The Opportunity
Many health care teams participate in value-based performance reimbursement programs. These programs can reward health care organizations for improved performance and patient outcomes. These programs have the greatest impact when health systems not only distribute resources to clinicians but also invest in assets that sustain and advance improvements on critical performance measures, such as cardiovascular events. By aligning financial incentives with quality care, health systems can enable the teams, technology, and processes that ensure optimal outcomes for patients.
Rush University Medical Group serves a primarily urban population of about 300,000 people on the southwest side of Chicago, Illinois. The group operates three hospitals and more than 20 clinical sites. New West Physicians has 135 clinicians in 18 locations in a suburb of Denver, Colorado. It serves about 200,000 patients annually.
Though they operate a thousand miles apart, both Rush University Medical Group and New West Physicians recognize that prioritizing hypertension control would boost patient health and their bottom lines.
“There is a concrete reality to improving outcomes through hypertension control,” said Ken Cohen, M.D., FACP, chief medical officer of New West Physicians.
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#HTNControlChamps.
Tags: bloodpressure, denver, diabetes, health, healthyeating, Million Hearts