Centura Health used Emmi® programs to reach out to patients regarding hypertension
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is one of the leading causes of stroke and heart disease. About 75 million American adults have hypertension.
As part of its population health outreach, Centura Health, a system with 17 hospitals and more than 100 physicians practices in Colorado and Kansas, set two goals: Increase the number of patients with a blood-pressure reading on file, and increase the number of patients whose blood pressure was under control. Centura used Emmi® programs to reach out to its patient population to achieve its hypertension goals.
The EmmiEngage® Hypertension program lasts 17 minutes and gives the patient:
- An overview of hypertension
- Tips on how to control high blood pressure
- Suggestions on taking blood pressure medications
- Instructions for taking blood pressure at home
- Tips on how to set small wellness goals
Centura sent the Emmi Hypertension program via email to 6,509 patients. After six months, the health system checked to see whether a blood pressure reading was on file and whether there had been a change in blood pressure.
Results
The percent of patients with blood pressure on file by the end of the six-month campaign rose for all participants. However, it rose much further for the patients who viewed the Emmi program, from 41% to 66%—a 61% increase. For the non-Emmi viewers, the final tally was only 58% who had a BP reading on file.
For the question of how many patients had their blood pressure under control at the end of the study period, the results were equally positive. 72% of patients who started with controlled BP and who viewed the Emmi program had controlled BP at the end of the six months, vs. only 62% of the patients who did not view the program. That was 16% higher, relatively, than the non-viewers.
Further, Emmi viewers had a better chance of achieving controlled BP than non-Emmi viewers. By the end, 36% of the Emmi viewers who started with uncontrolled BP had brought it under control, whereas only 31% of the non-viewers did. The relative improvement was 15%.