Guidance on preventing cardiovascular disease (CVD) was originally published in 2019 and was updated this year. Optimal treatment of AF, high blood pressure and raised cholesterol is highly effective in preventing CVD events.
Over 40% of people with high blood pressure remain undiagnosed and of those diagnosed with high blood pressure, only 67% are optimally managed.
How do we diagnose and manage more effectively?
GP Practices are encouraged to actively screen patients and seek out hidden hypertensives. To the average practice this could mean hundreds of extra appointments for a simple blood pressure measurement.
They need help in the form of the easy to use, clinically validated A&D Medical TM-2657P waiting room blood pressure monitor.
Originally the idea of allowing patients to measure their own blood pressure was greeted with scepticism by some clinicians, but practice managers were quick to see the advantages.
Ideally located in a quiet corner of the waiting room, this type of monitor is designed for professional high volume use and automatically prints a reading, with the date and time, on a small slip of paper.
The patient usually shows this reading to the doctor or nurse at the beginning of the consultation and if the readings are too high or low they can then re-measure. In some practices patients hand results to a member of the reception team, who record it electronically for later review.
For practice managers, they offer good management and effective use of resources freeing clinical staff for other roles where they may be better utilised. Some practices report they ‘save’ up to 100 appointments per month on average.
For patients the feedback is positive and the monitors promote understanding and compliance.
Recently we have been involved in a couple of projects looking to target patients who don’t visit a GP regularly or have access to another healthcare provider. TM-2657P blood pressure monitors have been placed in public access buildings like Libraries and Pharmacies.
They have identified new undiagnosed hypertensives with elevated blood pressure and helped manage existing hypertensive patients promoting medication compliance.
