It’s widely recognized that cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States. In fact, one person dies approximately every 30 seconds from heart disease in this country. Primary care practices, where most patients get their care, are the first line of defense in protecting patients at risk of heart disease, but it’s been a challenge to go it alone. This American Heart Month, AHRQ is sharing new findings that point to good news on the horizon when it comes to improved primary care delivery of heart health services in America.
AHRQ’s EvidenceNOW: Advancing Heart Health initiative provided support services, such as practice facilitation, to help more than 1,500 small- and medium-sized primary care practices serving 8 million patients in the U.S. implement the latest evidence on heart health. About half of these patients were at high risk for heart disease, many of whom benefited from improved delivery of services proven to prevent heart attacks and strokes also called the “ABCS” of heart health: Aspirin use by eligible patients, Blood pressure control, Cholesterol management, and Smoking cessation counseling. Through EvidenceNOW, practices also increased their use of quality improvement strategies.
Before American Heart Month comes to a close, learn more about EvidenceNOW and a curated collection of tools and resources to support quality improvement in primary care, including a new guide to help primary care practices consider patient’s risk for CVD (PDF, 843 KB).
