Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Measure Up, Pressure Down

As the U.S. population ages and the number of Americans impacted by obesity and diabetes increases, high blood pressure control is more important than ever. One in three (68 million) U.S. adults has high blood pressure and less than half of patients have it adequately controlled. With no serious action on this issue, by 2030, more than 100 million adults will have high blood pressure, resulting in staggering increases in health care costs, disability and lost productivity for the United States. Measure Up, Pressure Down is the American Medical Group Foundation’s  national campaign to improve high blood pressure prevention, detection and control.

There is no cost to join the campaign.  Joining Measure Up, Pressure Down will result in better health outcomes for patients, improved ability for groups to participate in performance–based contracts, such as ACOs or patient-centered medical home initiatives and national recognition for medical group.

The campaign will challenge medical groups to adopt one or more evidence-based care processes and to work toward achieving the campaign goal of 80 percent of patients in control by 2016.

• < 140/90 for uncomplicated hypertension patients
• < 130/80 for hypertension patients with diabetes

Participating groups will receive free best practice resources and training including a provider toolkit, webinars and other educational opportunities. Participating groups will be asked to complete a medical group profile survey and provide quarterly updates on blood pressure control rates and select standard measures to enable AMGF to evaluate campaign implementation and outcomes. All data will be reported in the aggregate and will be used for no other purpose than to assist the campaign reach its goals and evaluate results.