Hypertension (HTN) is the most prevalent modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease among U.S. adults. Despite a long history of established guidelines to support clinical management, only half of U.S. adults diagnosed with HTN have poorly controlled blood pressure (BP)4 and medication adherence to proven effective treatment remains suboptimal. Clinical decision support (CDS) has the potential to overcome barriers to delivering guideline-recommended care and improve HTN management. However, optimal strategies for scaling CDS have not been well established, particularly in small independent primary care practices which often lack the resources to effectively change practice routines in order to effectively utilize CDS. Further, CDS is used in relatively few components of the medication management process, despite indications that CDS alerts are likely to impact patient care. Practice facilitation is a well-demonstrated implementation strategy to support process changes and has the potential to facilitate CDS implementation. Our objective is to rigorously evaluate whether practice facilitation provided in concert with a hypertension-focused CDS that incorporates medication adherence results is an effective strategy for scaling and implementing CDS. We will initially update and incorporate an evidence-based hypertension-focused CDS shown to be effective in Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) into an existing commercial electronic health record (EHR) system used by a large network of independent primary care practices. This CDS will employ several features shown to be effective in the FQHCs, including passive alerts, order sets, documentation templates, standardized medication adherence questionnaires, and clinical reminders. Additionally, the CDS will incorporate a new feature, a medication adherence alert based on prescription claims data. We will then randomize 40 small independent primary care practices in New York City to receive either practice facilitation in addition to the CDS or the CDS alone. The PF intervention will include an initial training in the CDS and review of current guidelines along with follow-up in-person and remote meetings for coaching and supporting integration into the workflow. After an eighteen- month intervention period, we will examine the differences in blood pressure control achieved by practices in the CDS plus practice facilitation group versus practices that received the CDS alone. We will also assess the implementation process for scaling the CDS using the RE-AIM framework. The results of this study will inform future efforts to implement and scale CDS into small primary care practices, where much of care delivery occurs in the U.S.
Clinical decision support (CDS) has the potential to facilitate guidelines-based care and improve management of hypertension, but optimal strategies to implement and scale CDS remain unclear. This project aims to examine whether practice facilitation delivered in concert with CDS implementation can significantly improve guidelines-based care and hypertension control versus CDS alone. Identifying strategies that increase the success of hypertension-focused CDS are important to address the high burden of hypertension in the U.S., a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
