The Achieving Cardiovascular Excellence (ACE+) Quality Improvement Project (QIP) is sponsored by the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) . Building on previous successes, ACE+ will focus on improving cardiovascular health by increasing hypertension control, identifying health-related social needs, and connecting patients with resources to address health-related social needs. The Ohio Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center (GRC) will implement a Primary Care Cardiovascular QIP in collaboration with ODH and The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. The project aims are to improve the cardiovascular health of Ohioans with a special focus on Non-Hispanic Black patients and those living in priority areas such as Ohio’s Appalachian region.
ACE+ participating sites will work to:
- Educate staff and improve office processes related to cardiovascular health.
- Improve blood pressure (BP) control using appropriate BP treatment algorithms.
- Explore electronic health record (EHR) functionality to screen for health-related social needs and reporting capabilities to help manage this population.
- Make community connections for your patients with identified health-related social needs, including the possibility to use a closed-loop referral resource.
- Utilize the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI) Model for Improvement to complete small tests of change via plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles.
- Implement 2025 AHA updated blood pressure control guidelines, including exploring the use of the AHA PREVENT score.
The ACE+ provider change package outlines additional strategies to achieve project aims. Through these key strategies, the previous cohort of the ACE+ QIP improved BP control and increased health-related social needs screenings across the patient population. During the ACE pilot, a decrease in the disparity among non-Hispanic Black patients and Hispanic American patients when compared to non-Hispanic White patients was also observed. The impact of this work can affect other quality metrics such as the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) score for blood pressure control.