Raising Awareness to Lower Blood Pressure

Written for McKesson Medical-Surgical

Ever had your doctor ask whether you are monitoring something, like say your blood pressure and you answer, “yes, of course I am, doctor.” But silently, you know you haven’t been.

Helping patients get access to the care they need, prevent this “cheat factor” and positively impact the quality of their health, is part of a program that the American Heart Association (AHA) is running in South Florida. And, a cross-functional McKesson Medical-Surgical team is helping provide the tools needed to do just that.

Last summer, Medical-Surgical employees including Account Executive Steve Drzata, Area Sales Manager Alex Loisey, and Director of Community Health Center Development Bob Piacine, along with representatives from Welch Allyn, Commonwealth Purchasing Group (CPG), and the Health Choice Network (HCN) became involved with the AHA’s program, Target BP: Empowering Underserved Residents of South Florida to Lead Healthy Lives.

This initiative works to help patients in the South Florida area monitor and lower their blood pressure by providing them with blood pressure monitors so they can take their blood pressure at home. The units they use are provided by Welch Allyn and give patients fast, easy to read results. Those results automatically go to the health records system at their local health center.

How did Medical-Surgical get involved?

The AHA provided a grant to HCN, part of the CPG. CPG reached out to Piacine along with the Medical-Surgical sales team in South Florida to find out what blood pressure monitors they would recommend for HCN to use for this project.

Piacine, Drzata and Loisey met with HCN to discuss their needs for this grant and program. They researched and worked with Welch Allyn and found that the Welch Allyn Home Blood Pressure Monitor with SureBP® Technology, was the right model for the program and patients. It’s ability to connect to the free Welch Allyn Home app and user-friendly features fit into the grant requirements from the AHA. The device has blue tooth connectivity and the physician knows when the patient has taken their BP. “It’s easy for patients to use at home,” said Drzata. “It’s single button operation that provides fast patient results in about a minute.”

On average, there has been a 22% change in systolic blood pressure and a 15% change in diastolic blood pressure.* The progress has quadrupled since the start of the program.

According to the AHA, the goal of the program was to have a 5% annual improvement with patients who have BP issues. As of this spring, 528 participants had enrolled in the program across the five health centers who are participating. Among the 528 enrolled in the program, a total of 131 patients have completed the self-monitoring program and have reduced their blood pressure to 140 over 90 or lower. On average, there has been a 22% change in systolic blood pressure and a 15% change in diastolic blood pressure.* The progress has quadrupled since the start of the program.

This initiative is primarily in Florida so far, but the hope is to spread awareness, and the program, beyond the southern area to help others throughout the United States. “We’d like to help find a way to expand this program across the nation,” said Loisey.

*All stats in this paragraph are from the American Heart Association