michigan hypertension core curriculum - State of Michigan

Policy Development: Public health professionals contribute to policy development by supporting
legislation, or working with organizations to change their internal policies. One well-known public
health effort is smoke-free initiatives. Increasing of taxes, supporting local regulations, encouraging
smoke-free worksite policies, encouraging coverage of smoking cessation treatment, and smoke-free
legislation for public places are a few of the examples. Similar initiatives either are being done or could
be done in hypertension. Some examples are as follows:
1) Supporting improvements in coverage of prescriptions for hypertension control.
Working with employer groups and insurers to recognize the importance of eliminating
barriers, both cost and convenience to enhance adherence to antihypertensive treatment.
2) Policies encouraging adequate physical activity in the schools, encouraging healthy
choices in school lunch programs, and supporting community design that encourages
physical activity, all are important strategies to prevent obesity and therefore reduce
future hypertension.
3) Policies that encourage restaurants and food manufacturers to label healthy food choices,
the ingredients on products provide information to consumers so they can make healthy food
decisions.
4) Working with food producers to limit added salt in food products.
5) Encouraging farm markets and increasing fresh foods at locations such as convenience
stores where there are limited choices in many poorer communities.
Assurance: Public health initiatives have been implemented to increase the utilization of evidencebased
clinical guidelines for hypertension.
Examples include the following:
1) Working with the Michigan Quality Improvement Consortium (MQIC), MDCH
representatives and staff have provided input to MQIC to support the assurance that
physicians will follow the latest hypertension guidelines. The MQIC guidelines are
disseminated statewide and are used by health organizations in pay for
performance and other practice performance evaluations.
2) Another role includes disseminating training material, supporting educational resources,
screening forms and other material to provide guidance for appropriate community
hypertension services.
3) Public health supports services for high-risk, underserved populations. Free or low-cost
clinics provide the screening and treatment needed for these populations.
4) Public health programs focus on media and public education campaigns to
inform the population about the importance of periodic screening, high BP
control, appropriate treatment goals and treatment modalities. Providing
services to the medically underserved is a critical component of public health.
Collaboration with partners like the National High Blood Pressure
Education Program and/or the American Heart Association,
public health staff annually plan a range of educational or media
events during National High Blood Pressure Month.
5) Special MDCH projects have been funded: grants to health plans to enhance the
tracking and process improvement activities for members diagnosed with high
BP to increase control rates, a self-instructional BP measurement quality
improvement program has been developed and disseminated to health
professionals statewide, projects in worksites have focused on
increasing access to hypertension services.
MDCH projects have incorporated and trained public health staff in the latest clinical
guidelines such as the Maternal and Child Infant Program’s nursing interventions for
146 Hypertension Core Curriculum