The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have released new resources to encourage pharmacists to take a more active role in the management of hypertension among their patients.
The new resources are aimed at connecting public health departments with pharmacists to encourage a team-based care system. The new guide positions pharmacists as the first line of defense.
“What the CDC did was to develop a guide using the same principles as (the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process) PPCP, but specifically to manage and treat high blood pressure,” Stacia Spridgen, retired director of the Federal Pharmacy Program, said. “The CDC recognizes those contributions that community pharmacists make to improve population health. Developing this guide basically was a call to action to use PPCP as a way to prevent and manage high blood pressure through team-based care.”
Continual communication among patients, their families and caregivers is at the center of the program. Collaboration through documentation and communication between physicians and pharmacists is aimed at providing safer and more effective care.
“I think PPCP is a relatively new concept for people, and so this is an important way of getting it out there so it’s a more standardized systematic approach to managing patients from a pharmacist perspective,” Spridgen said.
CDC promotes pharmacists' role in helping patients with hypertension
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