Improving Acute Hypertension Management Through Emergency Department Checklist

Hypertension is a global public health issue and results in over 10 million deaths every year. The disease affects one-third of people living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and contributes to half of all productivity losses in LMICs due to non-communicable diseases. Though hypertension often presents as a chronic asymptomatic illness, hypertension-related emergencies represent a significant burden to the health care system. Acute severe hypertension [i.e., systolic blood pressure (SBP) ≥ 180 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) ≥ 110 mmHg] make up to 5% of all emergency admission. One-third of these patients present with end-organ damage; a condition called a hypertensive crisis. More worrisome is the fact that a number of ED visits, as a result, severe acute hypertension and hypertensive crises have almost tripled between 2006 and 2013 in the US. Treatment approaches to managing acute severe hypertension (~5% of ED patients) are largely unclear and only 6% of ED patients with acute severe hypertension receive appropriate work-up for the end-organ damage, indicating a huge care gap. One approach, which has been used successfully in managing other complex and critical conditions, is the use of checklists. Checklists are a listing of actions to be performed in a given clinical setting with the aim of improving adherence to standards, reducing errors and thus improving patient outcomes. The investigators hypothesize that the use of a Checklist, if appropriately implemented, can lead to an improvement in the care of patients presenting with hypertensive crisis. During this study, the investigators will measure the prevalence of acute severe hypertension and assess the current quality of care for these patients. This will be followed by the development of a checklist for the management of the hypertensive crises in the ED. The investigators will follow these patients to see the impact of the checklist on the quality of care and long-term outcomes.