NACHC and the CDC are partnered together to reduce heart attacks and strokes to help achieve the Million Hearts^® 2022 goals. The current focus has been to implement strategies to reduce undiagnosed hypertension, improve use of statins in high-risk patients, improve hypertension management and control for African Americans, and expanding use of self-measured blood pressure monitoring. NACHC is implementing and scaling strategies for health centers to improve performance in the following areas:

Statin Therapy for High-Risk Patients

The project focuses on improving use of statin therapy for patients at high risk of heart attack and stroke through enhanced care processes to prescribe statins to as many high-risk patients as possible.

Resources:

• Cholesterol Provider Training Package
  • Statin Adherence (downloadable tool to use)
  • Statin Associated Side Effects (downloadable tool to use)
  • Statin Therapy for High-Risk Group Summary Video
  • Statin Guideline Snapshot (downloadable tool to use)
  • Statin Inertia Chart (downloadable tool to use)
  • Q&A: Common Patient Questions about Statins
• Improving Use of Statin Therapy Roadmap: Quality Improvement Tool
• How Do Statins Prevent Heart Attacks and Strokes: Patient Education Animation | English | Spanish
• How Do Statins Prevent Heart Attacks and Strokes: Patient Education Infographic | English | Spanish
• Statins and Lifestyle: Patient Education Infographic | English | Spanish
• Statins and Healthy Lifestyle to Lower Cholesterol in High-Risk Patients video series highlighting the stories of two patients, Laurie and Millie, who first handedly experienced the benefits of starting statin therapy to improve their cholesterol.

Improving Blood Pressure Control for African Americans

This project focuses on implementing evidence-based and promising practices to improve blood pressure control for African Americans to intensify guideline-recommended therapy, increase frequency of patient touch points, improve medication adherence, and increase patient engagement. 

Resources:

• Improving Blood Pressure Control for African Americans Roadmap: Quality Improvement Tool
• 80% Hypertension Control: A Three Pillar Practical Approach

Self-Measured Blood Pressure Monitoring (SMBP)

WATCH: D’Angelo’s Story

The focus of this work is to support the CDC’s SMBP National Strategy, which aims to accelerate the adoption of SMBP as a national standard of care. This is done by addressing key challenges in the areas of community engagement, reimbursement, HIT, hosting a quarterly SMBP virtual forum, and supporting an online community of peers in the SMBP field.

Resources:

• Community Health Center Requirements for Remote Physiologic Monitoring (RPM) & Self-Measured Blood Pressure (SMBP)
• Are Community Health Center Patients Interested in Self-Measured Blood Pressure Monitoring (SMBP) – And Can They Do It? (Journal Article)
• Buying Home Blood Pressure Monitors Considerations and Comparisons 
• Choosing a Home Blood Pressure Monitor At a Glance Comparison
• How to Use your Home Blood Pressure Monitor | English | Spanish
• Self-Measurement: How Patients and Care Teams are Bringing Blood Pressure to Control
  • Natalia’s Story
• The Million Hearts^® SMBP Forum is a collaborative community of practice to advance the use of SMBP nationally as a proven strategy to improve hypertension control and prevent heart attacks and strokes. The forum is designed for health centers, but anyone interested in the topic is welcome to attend. You can register here.
• Accelerating Use of SMBP through Clinical-Community Care Models
• Collaborative Care Models for Improving Hypertension Control through Self-Measured Blood Pressure Monitoring Video
• NACHC SMBP Implementation Toolkit
• NACHC SMBP Implementation Guide
• Making an Economic Case for SMBP Tool

Other Resources

Hypertension Resources:

NACHC
Who Are the Undiagnosed? Disparities in Hypertension Diagnoses in Vulnerable Populations
Improving Identification and Diagnosis of Hypertensive Patients Hiding in Plain Sight (HIPS) in Health Centers

Million Hearts: Leveraging Health Information Technology (HIT), Quality Improvement (QI), and Primary Care Teams to Identify Hypertensive Patients
Hiding in Plain Sight (HIPS)

CDC

Million Hearts® Hypertension Control Change Package (PDF guide)
Million Hearts® Hypertension Control Champions

Fixed-Dose Combination Antihypertensive Medication Coverage by State Medicaid and Medicaid Managed Care Organizations

AMA 
Hypertension Medication Treatment Protocol
Validated Device Listing
Release the Pressure Campaign

Other
With Every Heartbeat is Life
Surgeon General’s Call to Action for Hypertension (Full Report)
Behavioral Health Hypertension Toolkit and accompanying video overview

Self-Measured Blood Pressure Monitoring Resources:
SMBP Joint Policy Statement 2020