Blood pressure readings recorded in a computerized database provide as much valid information on care as doctor’s notes, suggesting that automated health databases can help physicians monitor chronic diseases like hypertension, according to new research.
Extra information contained in doctors’ notes changed the assessment of whether or not high blood pressure was controlled for a given patient in fewer than 2 percent of the cases examined by Ann Borzecki, M.D., M.P.H., of the Bedford Veterans Affairs Medical Center and colleagues. Their study was published in the American Journal of Managed Care.
“If valid blood pressure data were available in automated form, this would make evaluations of blood pressure control and quality of hypertension care more useful by encompassing more cases and allowing more timely feedback of information to providers, so that corrective actions would be more likely,” Borzecki explains.
More than 50 million Americans have high blood pressure. Despite readily available therapies to treat the condition, most hypertension patients don’t have their blood pressure under control.
Borzecki and colleagues compared the information on blood pressure in databases and doctors’ notes at 10 VA hospital sites around the country. The researchers examined blood pressure readings in records from 981 patients, representing 6,097 medical visits.