Abstract Body: Introduction: Blood pressure (BP) control can prevent major adverse cardiac events and is monitored through various means, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 165 metric for BP control - an annual reporting metric for community health centers (CHCs) within the Uniform Data System framework that becomes accessible 6 months after the conclusion of the reporting period. In pursuit of more immediate indicators related to BP management, the National Hypertension Control Initiative (NHCI) initiated collaboration with a population health platform to support select CHCs with rapidly available data on 19 BP-related metrics.
Hypothesis: With technical support and regular access to data, CHCs can implement timely clinical practice and process changes.
Methods: To support CHCs in using the population health platform, NHCI staff provided technical assistance in a rapid cycle performance improvement (RCPI) to 10 interested CHCs. This opportunity allowed CHCs to partner with NHCI staff to review BP related metrics in the population health platform and to identify opportunities for clinical process and practice changes.
Over an 8-week period from October to December 2023, 7 CHCs were actively involved in a series of 5-6 structured 30–60-minute meetings with both NHCI registered nurse and quality improvement staff. These meetings reviewed BP metrics, mapped clinical workflows for improvement, and supported data analytics. CHCs often chose 1-2 BP metrics for focus, concentrating on incremental change and short-term improvement.
Results: Among participating CHCs that reported, they revealed successful or anticipated adjustments in team responsibilities and clinical processes, including leadership involvement and new methods. Limitations included CHC staff engagement, time, concerns with data reliability, and familiarity with the population health platform. Most reporting CHCs shared that their goals were greatly impacted by access to readily available performance data and that they plan to continue using the population health platform to affect performance moving forward.
Conclusions: For participating CHCs, individualized guidance based on timely data may have been helpful in analyzing workflows and procedures, assessing clinical care practices, and implementing quality improvement plans. Frequent data may allow CHCs to make clinical practice and process changes to efficiently measure impact and more quickly improve BP control than standard methods.