80% Success Rate for 9-Year Hypertension Control Program

Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente Northern California’s hypertension control program saw a more than 30 percent increase over nine years in the number of patients able to control their hypertension, from less than 50 at the beginning of the study to 80 percent at the end of it, according to a study published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

KPNC selected more than 650,000 hypertension patients from medical records to track for the program.

To create hypertension control practices, KPNC ran periodic checks on control rates at each facility and disseminated best practices and performance metrics from the facilities with the best control rates to the entire hypertension control program.

Halfway through the program, KNPC also added guidelines for first-line medication administration and follow-up visits after medication changes.

The hypertension control rate continued to rise after the study’s completion in 2009, according to the authors, hitting 87.1 percent of hypertension patients able to control their condition in 2011.

80% Success Rate for 9-Year Hypertension Control Program

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