Improving cardiovascular health in primary care in Saint Lucia through the HEARTS Initiative

Objective. To improve blood pressure control and hypertension registry coverage at six demonstration sites in St Lucia. Methods. From January 2020 to December 2021, St Lucia’s Ministry of Health, with support of the Pan American Health Organization, implemented the HEARTS Technical Package in six pr...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública
Main Authors: Shana Cyr Philbert, Patrice Lawrence-Williams, Yitades Gebre, Marvin Lionel Hutchinson, Sharon Belmar-George
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Spanish
Portuguese
Published: Pan American Health Organization 2022
Subjects:
hypertension
clinical protocols
arterial pressure
primary health care
saint lucia
Medicine
R
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine
RC955-962
Public aspects of medicine
RA1-1270
Arctic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2022.128
https://doaj.org/article/31dcaf3af99d4f4ca31b8c1bfae033ca
Description
Summary:Objective. To improve blood pressure control and hypertension registry coverage at six demonstration sites in St Lucia. Methods. From January 2020 to December 2021, St Lucia’s Ministry of Health, with support of the Pan American Health Organization, implemented the HEARTS Technical Package in six primary health care facilities with six-monthly monitoring of blood pressure control and hypertension registry coverage. The modules included healthy-lifestyle counselling, evidence-based treatment protocols, access to essential medicines and technology, risk-based cardiovascular management, team-based care and systems for monitoring. Results. Levels of blood pressure control at 6, 12, 18 and 24-months after the intervention were 37.1%, 28.9%, 33.9% and 36.5% respectively. Hypertension registry coverage increased by 17.8% (1 434 to 1 689) for patients accessing service. Implementing the monitoring for action initiative 12 to 15 months after the start of the intervention resulted in policy and operational changes, improved documentation, and provided accurate and reliable data. Conclusions. The HEARTS initiative unearthed basic infrastructural challenges in blood pressure control. The essential elements for success were (1) buy in at all levels of the health sector; (2) addressing policy and operational changes; (3) accurate documentation and required analysis; (4) standardization of equipment and procedures and (5) regular monitoring and evaluation. Capacity building underpinned all changes.

Similar Items