AHA High Blood Pressure Toolkit-Pharmacists

4 Hypertension Guideline Toolkit for Pharmacists A SOLUTION Knowledge Is Power Educate your clients about the latest high blood pressure guideline. Encourage them to regularly check their blood pressure. Tell them that high BP is treatable. Make sure clients are aware: • The sooner they know about high BP, the better. It possibly can be managed by making lifestyle changes such as eating better and exercising. • If lifestyle changes aren’t enough to control high BP, it is very treatable. Medicines can effectively control it. • They must actively participate in their treatment plan, taking medicines as prescribed, regularly checking their blood pressure and keeping appointments with their health care provider. Pharmacists play a critical role in helping ensure medication adherence for their clients. If barriers such as cost, transportation, etc. prevent clients from taking medicines as prescribed, pharmacists should work with the prescribing physician to recommend a change. Pharmacists are a key part of team- based care for high BP. Randomized control trials (RCTs) showed that team- based hypertension care involving pharmacist intervention resulted in reductions in systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure and/ or greater achievement of BP goals when compared with usual care. The patients also were better at keeping appointments and taking their BP medicine as directed under the team- based-care model.