Group-based Treatments Can be More Effective for Hypertension Patients

Nearly 80 million in the US have problems with high blood pressure and about half of them still don’t have their condition under control. Hypertension can be a difficult condition to address, despite much prodding and persuasion by health authorities and doctors. Perhaps, it’s the right time for a different tack and some people have started to give people with hypertension less badgering and more support. In essence, it could take a group-based effort to manage high blood pressure. Often, blood pressure control only involves patients and doctor, but a new plan calls for an involvement from many players, including family members, community organization, pharmacists and even insurers.

It isn’t just the task for individual doctor or patient, there should be a clear roadmap for helping people with hypertension. It’s important to try harder. Hypertension elevates the risk of heart disease and stroke. So, urging people to lower and control their blood pressure even just slightly could bring immense health benefits in the long run.

Many organizations have come up with new rules to manage hypertension, they may include:

1. Creating an electronic registry for hypertension patients
2. Using the registry to alert doctor if the blood pressure go out of control
3. Writing guidelines to make it easier for doctor to tailor treatments for hypertension patients
4. Getting medical assistant to help people continuously monitor blood pressure level
5. Putting multiple hypertension drugs into a single pill

With effective methods, the number of people meeting goals with their blood pressure condition could grow. But exporting the success of one organization to another isn’t always easy. But they can always standardize care to better care for people with hypertension.

Many people in the United States still obtain their health care from small clinics or individuals doctors. But fortunately, many health professional have started to adopt new techniques including electronic medical records. People need systems that can cooperate with them. For starters, many experts would see insurers eliminate co-pays for hypertension visits.

If patients want to manage their hypertension, it may take up to five visits, but if they are charged $40 for each visit; patients could have a more difficult time coming back. Consequently, eliminating co-pays would be one thing the community should do as part of their hypertension control project. Cardiologists and other health professional have started discussion with insurers to make that a reality, because this would be one factor that affects the care of many patients with hypertension.