Cardiovascular Disease Preventive Services Among Smaller Primary Care Practices.

Marino M, Solberg L, Springer R, McConnell KJ, Lindner S, Ward R, Edwards ST, Stange KC, Cohen DJ, Balasubramanian BA. Cardiovascular Disease Preventive Services Among Smaller Primary Care Practices. American journal of preventive medicine. 2022 May 1; 62(5):e285-e295.

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Abstract:

INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular disease preventive services (aspirin use, blood pressure control, and smoking-cessation support) are crucial to controlling cardiovascular diseases. This study draws from 1,248 small-to-medium-sized primary care practices participating in the EvidenceNOW Initiative from 2015-2016 across 12 states to provide practice-level aspirin use, blood pressure control, and smoking-cessation support estimates; report the percentage of practices that meet Million Hearts targets; and identify the practice characteristics associated with better performance. METHODS: This cross-sectional study utilized linear regression modeling (analyzed in 2020-2021) to examine the association of aspirin use, blood pressure control, and smoking-cessation support performance with practice characteristics that included structural attributes (e.g., size, ownership, rurality), practice capacity and contextual characteristics, health information technology, and patient panel demographics. RESULTS: On average, practice performance on aspirin use, blood pressure control, and smoking-cessation support quality measures was 64% for aspirin, 63% for blood pressure, and 62% for smoking-cessation support. The 2012 Million Hearts goal of achieving the rates of 70% was achieved by 52% (aspirin), 32% (blood pressure), and 54% (smoking) of practices. Practice characteristics associated with aspirin use, blood pressure control, and smoking-cessation support performance included ownership (hospital/health system-owned practices had 11% higher aspirin performance than clinician-owned practices [p = 0.001]), rurality (rural practices had lower performance than urban practices in all aspirin use, blood pressure control, and smoking-cessation support quality metrics [difference in aspirin = 11.1%, p = 0.001; blood pressure = 4.2%, p = 0.022; smoking = 14.4%, p = 0.009]), and disruptions (practices that experienced > 1 major disruption showed lower aspirin performance [-7.1%, p < 0.001]). CONCLUSIONS: Achieving the Million Hearts targets may be assisted by collecting and reporting practice-level performance, which can promote change at the practice level and identify areas where additional support is needed to achieve initiative goals.