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VCS Receives Two Top Honors from the American Heart Association

Virginia Cardiovascular Specialists earns national recognition for efforts to reduce number of patients with uncontrolled blood pressure

Virginia Cardiovascular Specialists has been recognized by the American Heart Association (AHA) and American Medical Association (AMA) for their commitment to helping improve blood pressure (BP) control rates among the patient populations they serve, Gold level recognition as part of the 2020 Target: BP™ Recognition Program 

The Gold award recognizes practices that have 70 percent or more of their adult patient population with high BP controlled.

Hypertension (high BP) is a leading risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, and preventable death in the U.S. In addition, there are 116 million U.S. adults living with high BP and less than half of those people have their BP under control – making both diagnosing and effectively managing hypertension critical. And following the Surgeon General’s Call-to-Action to prioritize hypertension control in the U.S. and research in JAMA showing that overall rates of BP control have declined in recent years, optimizing hypertension control could not be more timely or needed. 

Target: BP is a national collaboration between the AHA and the AMA aimed at reducing the number of Americans who suffer from heart attacks and strokes each year by urging physician practices, health systems and patients to prioritize BP control. The initiative aims to help health care organizations improve BP control rates through use of the evidence-based AMA MAP BP™ quality improvement program, and recognizes organizations committed to improving blood pressure control.

The Target: BP Recognition Program celebrates physician practices and health systems, who treat patients with hypertension, for achieving BP control rates at or above 70 percent within the populations they serve. These achievements will ultimately lead to a reduction in the number of Americans who suffer heart attacks and strokes.

Virginia Cardiovascular Specialists earns national recognition for efforts aimed at improving cholesterol control 

Virginia Cardiovascular Specialists has received the American Heart Association’s Check. Change. Control. Cholesterol™ Gold award in recognition of their commitment to reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke through improved cholesterol management. 

High cholesterol is one of the major controllable risk factors for heart disease, heart attack and stroke, but typically has no symptoms. Nearly one in three American adults have high LDL or “bad” cholesterol and need personalized treatment including lifestyle modifications or prescribed medication to manage their levels.

To improve awareness, detection and management of cholesterol across the nation, the American Heart Association launched its Check. Change. Control. Cholesterol. initiative in 2017, now nationally supported by Amgen. Since then, more than 1300 health centers and systems have registered to participate.

The Gold award recognizes practices that have fulfilled the participant criteria and that have 70% or more of their adult, at-risk ASCVD patient population appropriately managed with statin therapy. 

To help healthcare providers achieve their goals, the Association provides all participants with a dedicated website featuring a free, evidence-based improvement program that includes tools and resources to help clinicians address, diagnose and manage their patients’ cholesterol. To facilitate easy and seamless adoption of the program, the Association offers access to trained support specialists within their community who can help identify specific program components to incorporate into clinical practice.

Published November 24, 2020


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