About one in three Americans has high blood pressure. Big deal, you say? It is; hypertension, or high blood pressure, causes heart attacks, strokes and death if not treated promptly and properly.
Today, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius recognized Kaiser Permanente’s Colorado region as a 2012 Hypertension Control Champion by Million Hearts, a national public-private initiative of the HHS, according to sources.
Kaiser Permanente Colorado is one of just two health care providers in the country to be recognized as a 2012 Hypertension Control Champion. Ellsworth (Wis.) Medical Clinic was the other.
“The recognition of Kaiser Permanente Colorado’s hypertension control work reflects our dedication nationally, across all our regions, in engaging patients proactively and focusing on their total health,” said Jack Cochran, MD, executive director of The Permanente Federation, Kaiser Permanente. “Supported by information technology, our physicians and their teams work together to help patients get and stay healthy.”
Kaiser Permanente Colorado was selected for the award because, since 2008, the healthcare provider’s focus on the ailment has resulted in an improvement from an initial member control rate of 61 percent to its current control rate of 82.6 percent, sources revealed, quite a bit above the national hypertension control rate, hovers around 50 percent.
As obesity rises in the U.S. – more than 35 percent of our population is considered obese – it can lead to cancer, diabetes and heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in the United States. Hypertension significantly increases the risk of heart disease or stroke. Worse than the potential for this disease is that more than half the people who have it don’t know it, or don’t treat it, and it accounts for nearly 1,000 deaths per day, costing nearly $131 billion in direct health care expenditures annually.
Kaiser Permanente Colorado has had great success with programs for those with high blood pressure, decreasing deaths in certain patient populations from heart disease by 60 percent.
The Million Hearts Initiative strives to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes by 2017.
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Edited by
Allison Boccamazzo
