How the Washington Health Alliance Tracks Cardiovascular Care
Cardiovascular care is an essential part of high value care we aim for all Washingtonians to receive. As a leader in transparent reporting, the Washington Health Alliance (WHA) has followed how our physicians and care providers perform in addressing cardiovascular health. For National Heart Month, we are sharing how our work helps improve care in our state.
There are so many facets in which cardiovascular care plays out in the routine wellness of our friends and neighbors from comprehensive, appropriate monitoring to affordable, necessary treatments.
So how do we monitor cardiovascular care in Washington?
As the state’s leading, independent healthcare collaborative, we have released annual reporting on the quality of care since 2009, relying on an agreed-upon set of crucial primary care measures to gauge the success of our healthcare system.
Rates for these crucial services are drawn from in-depth analysis of our voluntary All-Payer Claim Database, which includes more than 4.5 million covered lives in Washington state.
As our reporting has developed, the number of measures we track has grown, and now we report on 66 measures, at least seven of which directly relate to cardiovascular care.
- Cholesterol-lowering medication generic prescription
- Controlling high blood pressure
- High-blood pressure medication generic prescription
- Statin therapy adherence for patients with cardiovascular disease
- Statin therapy for patients with cardiovascular disease
- Taking cholesterol-lowering medications as directed
- Taking hypertension medications as directed
But there are many other ways we track the quality of care that have an association with cardiovascular health. For instance, we track access to primary care, which is often where cardiovascular issues are first identified by a resident’s care team.
Not only do we report the variation in quality at the clinic and medical group level on these measures for commercial insurance and Medicaid, but we also report on how where someone lives impacts the quality of care, they receive by each measure through our Area Deprivation Index analyses.
Why does this matter?
At WHA, our membership has long been brought together under the idea that you cannot improve what you don’t measure.
We have long relied on these quality measures to define internal initiatives, as well as used them as a call to action to the robust health care ecosystem in Washington from large health system to small rural clinics.
Beyond simply reporting on quality metrics, we have levered our collective expertise, drawn on from member organizations across Washington, to address cardiovascular health directly.
In recent years, we have focused on the importance of home blood pressure monitoring, a tool of growing impact at ensuring high-value care.
Why you should get involved?
If you are an organization already a member of WHA, we encourage you to engage in dialogue around cardiovascular health so we can improve the care our residents receive. Through our Quality Improvement Committee, Purchaser Affinity Group and other avenues, we work directly on pressing issues to ensure the highest quality of care across a range of settings and impactful services.
If you are not a member of WHA, there is no better time to join as we drive forward to address gaps, ensure access and safeguard affordability of care in our state.
Let our reporting serve as a jumping off point to make informed decisions with added input from your peers among the WHA membership.
We know that we can only drive market change to improve the value of care in Washington if we work together.