Hypertension or high blood pressure contributes to more than 925,000 cardiovascular disease deaths each year among adults in the U.S. But there is help available for patients, physicians, care teams and health care organizations from the AMA.
It comes in the form of AMA MAP™ Hypertension. This evidence-based quality-improvement program provides a clear path to significant, sustained improvements in BP control that can address hurdles to care. The program’s framework focuses on measuring accurately, acting rapidly, and partnering with patients, and it has demonstrated a 10% increase in BP control in six months, with sustained results at one year.
The AMA and Azara Healthcare are collaborating to give organizations access to AMA MAP Hypertension metrics, reports, quality-improvement tools and resources. Azara DRVS is a centralized, scalable data reporting and analytics platform for population health management and quality improvement. The detailed analytics allow care teams to access a more comprehensive view of their patient population, including the socioeconomic challenges their patients are experiencing.
Read on to explore a recent collection of stories based on the “AMA MAP Hypertension Learning Series” that highlight the major components of the program and how it can guide BP-control improvements.
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These 3 action steps can improve BP control
- There are key clinical care barriers that make treating hypertension difficult. These include inaccurate BP measurement, treatment inertia, non-adherence to treatment and infrequent follow up. The AMA MAP Hypertension program enables care teams to understand which BP control barriers to prioritize on their journey to improving blood pressure control for their patient population.
- The AMA MAP program focuses on measuring accurately to ensure reliable BP readings by establishing a measurement protocol, acting rapidly to intensify treatment when indicated, and partnering with patients using collaborative communication techniques to engage them in their own self-management.
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Act fast and strong to bring down BP numbers
- Therapeutic inertia can affect treatment initiation and intensification. It delays starting medication treatment for patients leaving with uncontrolled high blood pressure. Therapeutic inertia also gets in the way of effective medication treatment for patients who are on medication for uncontrolled high blood pressure.
- When medications are not intensified to optimize the blood pressure lowering effect, patients end up with less effective treatment. This not only leads to poor blood pressure control, but it can also negatively impact patients’ perceived benefit of the treatment and could lead to poor medication adherence. Health systems and care teams can take specific actions to drive medication intensification.
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Keep these keys in mind to engage patients, measure BP accurately
- Blood pressure measurement is one of the most common procedures performed in a clinical setting, yet errors are common. In fact, there are 27 errors that can occur when performing a blood pressure that can impact its accuracy. One way to improve the accuracy of the readings is by using automated, validated blood pressure devices that are calibrated regularly.
- It’s also important to engage patients in managing their hypertension. One way to do this is to follow up frequently, every 2-4 weeks, with patients until their BP is controlled. Other strategies to partner with patients are to use collaborative communication strategies to support medication adherence and lifestyle changes. Additionally, educating patients on how to accurately self-measure their blood pressure and provide readings back to the care team allows patients to play an active role in self-management of their hypertension.
Watch all of the episodes in the webinar series to learn more about AMA MAP Hypertension and how Azara Healthcare can leverage the program through DRVS.
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