Hypertension Initiative of South Carolina

The Hypertension Initiative is to facilitating the transition of South Carolina from a leader in cardiovascular deaths to a model of cardiovascular health – taking South Carolinians from "worst to first". The initiative has established a program for voluntary dynamic multi-site medical record auditing. The program provides feedback to participating primary care providers to increase physician awareness of and compliance with hypertension clinical practice guidelines. The initiative has focused on developing unique computer programs to remotely download and merge data from a wide array of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems.

The goal of the Hypertension Initiative is to improve blood pressure control rates to meet the Healthy People 2010 goal of 50% of all hypertensive patients controlling their blood pressure.

Overall, in these analyses, majority sub-groups (Caucasian and men) experienced better cardiovascular risk factor control than minority sub-groups (African American and women). Across all age groups, Caucasian patients had better control of cardiovascular risk factors (blood pressure, hemoglobin A1C, and cholesterol) than African American patients. Gender comparisons found men had better BP control than women in all age groups. While men and women <45 years old had similar LDL-C control, men >45 years old had significantly (p<0.05) better control than women. Men and women <65 years old had similar rates of HbA1C control but older men (>65) had significantly (p<0.05) better control than women.