Hypertension is a common condition that can lead to severe health complications in an individual. Based on the recent reports from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly half of adults in the United States (47%, 116 million) have hypertension. Among the adults, 1 out of 4 adults (24%) with hypertension have their condition under control and 45% with uncontrolled hypertension (CDC, 2020). According to Sawase et al. (2019), hypertension prevalence is predicted to increase to 1.56 billion adults in 2025. Even though the prevalence of hypertension is likely to increase, the primary struggle existing among the affected is disease management. To ensure that disease management is made effective, data metrics need to be observed based on the quality, safety and cost of disease management process. For this assessment, the essay will address the effects of hypertension on quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
Quality Care
According to The World Health organization reports, hypertension is one of the prevalent and leading causes of premature deaths across the world. Upoyo et al. (2021) provide that the leading factors for uncontrolled hypertension include undetected changes, patient unawareness and lack of stable treatment patterns. Therefore, evaluating risk factors in the patient requires examination of the patient’s knowledge base, willingness to medication adherence, treatment and management (lifestyle modification), and attitudes towards the management. In particular, a lack of patient modification in exercising self-care increases the risks of hypertension, making management difficult (Najimi et al., 2018). In some cases, patients choose not to adhere their antihypertensive medication regimen for fear of becoming dependent on the drugs. Other cases involve barriers to quality care that are associated with attitudes towards the requirement of lifestyle modification as a treatment strategy. Najimi et al. contend that patients experiencing hypertension require family support to ultimately enable them to thrive through lifestyle modification processes.
Improving Quality Care
The treatment and management of hypertension is dependent on the ability of the patient to significantly modify their lifestyle and adhere to treatment plans. As mentioned above, barriers to lifestyle modification among hypertensive patients is reported to be lack of family support and their attitudes towards the process. For this reason, the healthcare providers are required to guide the patient and educate them on the importance of changing their lifestyle as a way of influencing their attitude. Also, it is imperative that the professionals ensure that while utilizing a patient-centered care model to facilitate treatment and management of hypertension, they should also engage the middle-range theory of nursing framework so that they can be guided on practices of quality care improvement (Drevenhorn, 2018). The middle-range theory is an evidence-based framework that comprises of nursing concepts related to care, patient-centeredness, and expected outcomes that guide nurses on their scopes of practice to inform on the strategies for improving care for patients with hypertension (Drevenhorn, 2018).
Patient safety is a central concern in healthcare services, including hypertension management. Several barriers influence effectiveness in patient safety, including ineffective communication, low patient education levels, and lack of interdisciplinary collaboration. According to Tiwary et al. (2019), ineffective communication can potentially lead to medication errors, lack of adherence to medication plans, incomplete follow-ups and uninformed adjustments. On the other hand, considering that patients with hypertension require treatment for other comorbidities, interdisciplinary collaboration is essential to ensure care coordination. According to Rosen et al. (2018), collaboration saves on preventable medication errors and enhances quality care for patients. The provision of education to patients with hypertension is essential in guiding them through the requirement of lifestyle modifications, follow-up care strategies, self-management, change detection and treatment regimens. According to Wu & Busch (2019), lack of adequate education on patients threatens their well-being and safety.
Enhancing Patient Safety
The effectiveness of enhancing patient safety can be related to patient outcomes. According to Wu and Busch (2019), optimization of patent safety requires engaging patients through effective communication as a component of facilitating adherence and compliance to a medical regimen. Patient-centered care is an imperative EBP approach recognized to increase patient safety and sat
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